Meadows of Heaven
by j-mercuryuk
Summary: Set after the events of KH2. Radiant Garden has a 'little' secret that it keeps hidden away, but it's not prepared to stay hidden forever, especially as it wants Leon, dragging in Sora and his friends into the mix. Squinoa
1. I Close My Eyes, The Lanten Dies

**A/N**: My first KH fanfic :D I've been wanting to do one for a while, based around Squall/Leon and Rinoa. It'll be Squinoa, with a sprinkling of other pairings around, playing around a bit with the Sorceress' Knight Theme and a Dark Sorceress Rinoa. I finally got bitten by the plot bunny after drawing a picture of Sorceress Rinoa, under the same title as the fic (Yeah, I really couldn't think of a title).

Set mainly in Radiant Garden, so lots of Final Fantasy Characters, and we'll see Sora, Riku and Kairi quite a bit as well :D

Thanks Zarrah for the first line.

**Chapter One-I Close my Eyes, the Lantern Dies  
**

"The smell of cheese is overwhelming."

Sora looked up at his best friend. "Maybe it is cheese," he suggested, though he knew it was a long shot.

"Doesn't look like cheese," Riku pointed out, walking faster to get away from the offensive smell.

Sora had to admit, it didn't look like cheese at all. Kairi, he decided, was talented at many things; cooking was not one of them.

"Maybe it tastes better then it smells," 'and looks,' he added mentally.

Riku looked over his shoulder, "Be my guest and try it."

Sora looked back down at the offensive…thing… in his hands. He quickly decided that, no matter how much he loved Kairi, he didn't love her that much. "Well, what are we going to do with it; she'll be here any minute, and then we'll have to eat it."

"Give it to Tidus," Riku suggested. "He'll eat it."

Sora thought about this; it really didn't seem fair, Tidus wasn't _that _annoying. He looked back down at the item in his hand, remembered his last conversation with the blond boy and then quickly decided that perhaps he was that annoying. He wrapped up Kairi's home-made cooking again, stuck it in his pocket and jogged to catch up to his older friend before he disappeared round the bend.

They came round the corner and saw a girl sitting on the edge of the cliff – Sora stopped for a minute as he realised that he'd never seen this girl before. A light breeze played with the black hair that reached to below her shoulders. The tail of her long blue coat spread out behind her. She seemed to be looking quite intently at the horizon. She couldn't have been older then Sora himself, yet he'd never seen her at school. After all, Destiny Islands wasn't the largest place in the universe, so children his age weren't too common. Any newcomers quickly became known in the community, and news travelled fast, yet he'd never heard any news of anyone new coming to the small group of islands.

Sora dashed up to the girl, eager to meet the stranger.

"Hey!" he greeted as he came to a stop next to her.

"Hey," she replied and swung her legs away from where they dangled over the edge of the cliff onto solid ground. In a fluid movement she stood in front of them, Riku stepping beside Sora.

"I haven't seen you around before," Sora continued.

"No, I don't suppose you would have," she merely said.

"So you're new?"

"Oh no!" she exclaimed, shaking her pretty head, "I'm pretty sure that I was born years ago."

Sora laughed. "That's a good one."

The girl smiled awkwardly, one hand clutching her other arm. "It is?" she asked.

His laugh died, not entirely sure if she was joking or not.

"You're not from this world are you?" Riku added, getting straight to the point.

Sora glanced between the two teenagers. Looking at her now, that did make a lot a sense. She didn't exactly look like your everyday Destiny Islander.

"Oh no, my world only has a sea of flowers. There are lots of flowers."

"Sounds nice," said Sora. "So are you staying on Destiny Islands?"

She lifted a finger and rested it on her cheek. "No, I don't think I will. I'm looking for something."

"Well, if you tell us what it is, then we'll help you."

"Really? That would be so helpful."

"Sure, it's no problem. So what are looking for?"

"My Knight."

Sora blinked. Her knight? He looked at her and she looked back. She sounded, and acted, as if she'd just said that she was looking for her keys rather then her knight.

"Your knight?" he asked.

She nodded, and completely deadpan said yes.

Riku seemed to be struggling with this idea as well. "As in 'in shinning armour'?"

"Well, he doesn't wear armour."

Sora tried hard not to gape. She was being completely serious. While this wasn't the strangest thing he'd seen or heard, it still made his mind stop and do the mental equivalent of a double take. "So what's his name?"

"I don't know." He was starting to get the impression that there really wasn't something right about this girl… besides coming from another world and looking for her knight of course.

"Well then, what does he look like?"

She sighed. "I'm really not too sure, but he's handsome. Yes, I'm sure he's very handsome."

Sora scratched his head. She was looking for her knight, but she didn't know what he looked like, or what his name was. How did that work?

Riku seemed to have the answer though. "Have you met him yet?"

She rolled his eyes. "Of course I have; he is my knight after all." So much for that idea, though he felt slightly stung by her comment. He was tempted to point out that, given her answers, this really wasn't a stupid question. Riku seemed to have no problem though.

"But you don't know his name or what he looks like."

She pouted a little at his retort. "I used to know, I think still do, just not this part. I'll definitely know him when I see him though."

She was giving him a headache – one bigger then Kairi's little present in his pocket had been giving him, and that was saying something. "Well, do you remember anything about him?"

Her lips started to tremble. "He was supposed to come to me." She let her face slip into her hands. "Why? Why hasn't he come? I call, I ask him to come to me. Why won't he rescue me? Why won't he come and- A lion!" Her head snapped up at as she cried the last part victoriously, all traces of sadness gone.

"Huh?" was all Sora could say, the change in her mood like a slap to the face. There was no question, this girl was definitely strange.

"A lion," she repeated, "You asked me if I remembered anything about my knight."

Sora was hit by inspiration and the feeling the need to move on away from the disturbingly quick mood swing he blurted out, "Simba! Was it Simba, he's a lion."

She giggled. "He's not actually a lion silly. I just…." She paused, looking lost in though as her hand reached up to clutch a pair of rings that hung from a chain round her neck. "I just… remember something about a lion."

"Well do you remember anything else? How about something to do with his name?"

"Something about… storms."

Sora thought, this time more carefully. "How about Cloud, Cloud Strife?"

She looked up brightly for a moment before the look faded again. "No, that wasn't it."

She continued to look forlorn and Sora really felt for her. She may be very strange and have moods swings quicker then Selphie jumped rope, but she really did seem very upset that she couldn't find her knight.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find him."

"Sora! Riku!" The two boys turned to see Kairi dashing up to them waving. As she stopped by them, she smiled at their new friend.

"Who's your new friend?"

It then occurred to Sora that he had never actually asked the girl for her name or given her his. Spinning round he grinned. "Oops, I forgot to ask."

Rolling her eyes Kairi turned to the stranger. "Sorry about the boys, I'm Kairi, this is Sora and that's Riku. And you are?"

"I'm looking for my knight."

Kairi looked confused, so Sora stepped in. "She means your name."

The girl brightened up. "Oh! I know this one! It's Sorceress."

Her statement was followed by dead silence. Beside him he could see Kairi's utterly lost expression and Riku giving her a 'she's like that' expression. Sora almost let the reply slide, she looked so happy that she'd answered a question that he felt guilty telling her that actually, her name probably wasn't 'sorceress'. However, they did need something solid if they were going to help her. It didn't stop the fact that Sora, when he spoke, felt like he was telling a small child that its hamster had just died.

"Erm, I don't think Sorceress is a name."

Her face fell. "It's not?"

"No, it's more like a title."

"Oh, and I was so sure I had something then."

"She _is_ actually looking for her knight," Riku explained to Kairi.

"How romantic."

"It'd be more romantic if he came to rescue me."

Sora wanted to point out that it would have been more romantic if she could remember what his name was. Instead he turned to Kairi. "We said we'd help her look for him, but she doesn't remember what he looks like or what his name is."

Kairi looked thoughtful, apparently coming to terms with the other girl's strangeness quicker then either of them. "Well, where was the last place you saw him?"

The girl tapped her finger on the side of her cheek and Sora was suddenly reminded of a mother helping her daughter find something.

"Let me guess," Riku began. "You don't know?"

The girl seemed to ignore his comment this time. "It was… in the …castle. Yes, I'm sure it was in the castle."

"And have you looked there?" Sora was definitely reminded of his mother now.

"Yes, I'm always looking there. I'm always looking for my knight there."

"How do you know he's not somewhere else in your world?" This time it was Riku who spoke.

"Well, I've looked under the flowers and in the long grass, and he's definitely not in the trees, so I don't see where else he could be."

The friends stared at the girl, who seemed to get stranger every minute. Sora felt very much like he was back in Wonderland. That feeling that this all made sense, or it would have if he wasn't missing some key piece of information. If he had that, then it would all make some kind of weird sense.

Kairi giggled, breaking the atmosphere. "Did you try behind the sofa?"

"I don't have a sofa," the other girl replied matter-of-factly.

Kairi stopped giggling, but was still smiling.

"Why are you looking here then?" Riku asked.

"Well I had to start somewhere."

Sora was taken aback by the logical response. Just when he thought he was getting used to her, she gives the answer that he least expected: the logical one – and if this girl was one thing, it wasn't logical.

"Why start here though?"

"Well, I felt something. I thought it might have been him, but no, I think it was you three instead." She looked thoughtfully at the three of them. "Yes, it was definitely you three." She seemed more together now then she had at any other point in the conversation, and as odd as it was, it made Sora more edgy about her than her previously rather ditzy attitude.

"Especially you." She leaned forward towards Sora, tilting her head up slightly to look him in the eyes. "Yes, especially you. There's something special in you. It's inside, it's…" She stopped there and then, for a split second, her eyes turned black. Not just the irises, but the whites of her eyes as well. Something about her seemed to change. Shocked, he took a step back, but before he'd even completed the step, it had gone and she had straightened again.

Back to 'normal', she shook her head. "I'm sorry; I really don't think I'm completely myself." She looked off, towards the sea horizon. After a moment's silence she spoke again. "I think I should go. I'm looking for my knight, you know." With that, she spun round and strode off the cliff.

With a surprise cry, the trio watched the girl drop. Sora dived forward, reaching out to grab the girl, only to meet thin air. Blinking he saw there was no trace of her, not a shadow, cry or ripple in the ocean.

Sitting up the three teenagers stared at one another. Sora broke the silence.

"Well that was…"

"Weird," Riku finished.

**End of Chapter One**

What did you think? Always happy to find out. Thank you Zarrah and Tamzin for reading over this for me.


	2. The Scent of Awaking, Wildhoney and Dew

Chapter 2-The Scent of Awakening, Wildhoney and Dew

The castle of Hollow Bastion, or Radiant Garden as he should call it now, was quiet. Leon could count on one hand the number of people who still came to the castle. It hadn't always been that way; once, the castle had been a hive of activity, not this silent, empty building, waiting to see its glory days again.

Leon could see the surrounding land for miles around from his vantage point on the wide balcony. Radiant Garden was being rebuilt, slowly but surely, and people were drifting back to their world, but it was still just a shadow of how it used to be.

There were footsteps behind him, coming closer, until the blond man came up beside him and leaned against the balcony, looking out. There was a moment of silence for a few minutes before the blond spoke.

"Brooding again?"

"No, reminiscing actually," Leon replied.

"Don't you normally reminisce with someone?"

"Volunteering?" There was a lighter tone in his voice.

"Would you tell me either way?" Cloud countered, knowing the answer already.

Leon smiled and turned, so he was leaning with his back to the landscape. "So why are you here?"

"Escaping. Aerith is learning to sew, I think she was one step away from making me wear one of her dresses, so I volunteered to come and find you."

Leon lips twitched up. "Pity, you'd look adorable in a purple number, especially with twin plaits."

His smile grew when the younger man glared at him, his look telling him quite clearly where he could stick that idea.

Leon turned his attention back to the room beyond the archway in front of him.

"That's the ballroom, isn't it?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah."

Cloud was silent for a moment, before, "I'd forgotten there was a ballroom."

Leon turned back to his companion, slightly surprised. Cloud didn't often engage people in conversation, especially not small talk, and most certainly not Leon, neither of them being the most talkative people in the world. Although, he was more surprised that Cloud had forgotten there had been a ballroom – what used to be the heart of celebrations in the city.

His surprise faded, once he thought about it; it made sense that Cloud would forget. He couldn't have been more than thirteen when everything starting kicking off. Too young to have come to any ball; but Leon had been to too many to forget about this place; too many attendances and too many memories.

Unsure how to answer Cloud's comment, he turned back to the hall. He froze. In the centre of the hall was a girl, staring up at the sky. A girl who was all too familiar and should most definitely not be there. Leon shook his head. It must just be his mind playing tricks on him, still lingering on the past. The girl turned and made her way to the exit.

"Looks like you're not the only one to come up here after all."

Leon looked at him. He wasn't seeing things, then. Cloud frowned slightly, still watching her, "She looks familiar…" Cloud trailed off and looked to Leon, seeing his own thoughts reflected in the other man's eyes. They turned back in time to see the girl step out of their line of sight. They stared stupidly for a moment, before they sprang forward.

Leon stopped only briefly in the centre of the room, but seeing no trace of his quarry he made his way to the exit. It couldn't be 'her' of course, not a chance. She couldn't have made her way out, escaped. She-

Leon's mental tirade came to a shuddering stop as he slammed into something, sending him crashing forward to the floor. Wincing slightly, he looked up at the ceiling in a vaguely bemused manner. He heard Cloud come to a halt, no doubt finding this all very funny.

"What do you think you're doing? Running around like the heartless are invading again!? The least you could do is look where you're going."

He looked to his side and saw Tifa sitting, rubbing her side, looking about as happy as a moogle who had had their pompom repeatedly yanked, except Tifa looked far more likely to rip his heart out… and distinctly less fluffy.

"And what are you doing all the way up here?" she continued, hand on hips. "Do you know how long it took me to find you?"

"She's gone," Cloud interrupted.

Leon jerked himself to his feet, remembering how he had come to be on his back in the first place. "What?"

"She's not here," Cloud repeated, and sure enough he was right.

Leon turned back to Tifa, now on her feet and looking more confused then annoyed. "Did you see anyone?" he asked.

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes – what's going on?"

Leon ignored her, and looked round the reception hall. Though not as large as the ballroom, it was still large enough that Tifa would have seen anyone who had left the ballroom just ahead of them. Besides, there was the hallway beyond that, but then she wouldn't have had to leave on foot if it were 'her'.

"What's going on?" Tifa repeated her question.

"Nothing," Leon said, and the door to the hallway opened, letting Yuffie in. "Don't worry about it."

Yuffie dashed past them and skidded to a halt in the ballroom. "Woooooooooow. What is this place?"

"The ballroom," Leon answered, giving Tifa a final 'drop it' look.

"Awesome! I didn't know we had a ballroom."

Leon turned to the young girl. Of course, if Cloud had forgotten about this place, then Yuffie certainly would have been too young to have realised this place existed. The young ninja stopped spinning round to take a closer look, running around.

"Have any of you been to a ball?"

Tifa's eyes flicked to Leon before answering, "I was too young. Cloud missed his first one; they stopped holding them when things started to get bad. Aerith has been to a couple though."

Yuffie halted and turned to Leon. "What about you?"

"A few," he admitted.

"What were they like?"

"Ball-like." If Yuffie had caught him five minutes ago he would have been loquacious, but now he really wasn't in the mood to talk about it anymore.

Yuffie, however, was not to be put off. "Leon! That's a stupid answer!" she exclaimed, bouncing to emphasise her point.

"Why don't you ask Aerith," Tifa suggested, "I'm sure she'll explain a lot better. You know what Leon's like."

This seemed to satisfy as she turned her attention back to examining the hall. "We should have a ball," she announced.

"It's a little messy to hold a ball in," Leon pointed out.

"Not now, silly! Later; after we've finished reconstruction of the town and castle. We can have one as a celebration."

The room went silent. Reconstruction of the castle? Leon had never seriously thought about it before now.

"Yuffie," Tifa began, "I don't think we'll be reconstructing the castle."

"Why not? It'll be really useful and it's gotta be better than letting it fall to pieces. Right?"

"Yuffie's right," Leon said, causing Yuffie to beam happily and Cloud and Tifa to look at him curiously. He ignored their looks and continued, "If we're careful then we should be fine. It's probably safer all round if the castle is in working condition. But," he added, "The city comes first."

Yuffie nodded, then bounced up to Leon. Oh god, what was she getting at now. "Leoooooon," she sang, "I don't know how to dance."

Suppressing a groan he brought his hand to his forehead. "I'll find someone to teach you."

"Thank you Leon!" and she bounced out of the room.

Tifa was watching him closely.

"Drop it Tifa," Cloud said, speaking for the first time since Yuffie had entered, and Leon could not be more grateful for his timing or choice of words.

"You were looking for me?"

Tifa appeared to give up, for the moment anyway. "Nothing exciting, but I think Cid wants to see you – I think he wants to try and convince you to get rid of Merlin's magic things while he's not here to stop us, to make room to expand his computer. You'd think having Tron would be enough for him. Oh, and I think dinner will be cold now," she added leaving the once glorious ballroom behind.

End of Chapter 2

Love it? Hate it? I love hearing what you think :D I really hope it's in character.


	3. Childhood Games, Woods and Lakes

**Chapter 3-Childhood Games, Woods and Lakes  
**

"This is a dream," Leon thought to himself. "This had to be a dream." There were several tell-tale signs that this was indeed a dream. For a start, there were people here whom he could never have seen in person again, he was pretty sure that Quistis had no idea how to play a musical instrument and he was also pretty sure that his house didn't have a ballroom. Though perhaps the biggest tip off was the fact that he was sure that in reality, no matter how much she begged, Aerith could never persuade Cloud to wear a dress. Especially not a ruffled pink one.

Leon resigned himself to the dream; he really didn't have much choice after all. He had several types of dreams. He dreamt of the past, and these were usually his least favourite dreams – it was amazing how his mind never choose to pick out happy memories to relive, he had the normal dreams, the kind of dreams that everyone has, and he had his headache dreams, which were the same as the normal dreams, but he was aware enough to realise that nothing that was going on made the slightest bit of sense. Ergo the headache he usually woke up with. This was one of his headache dreams, he quickly decided.

In these circumstances, he'd normally stand on the sidelines, and wait for the inevitable conversation that always seemed to permeate into these dreams. However, dream Quistis seemed to have other ideas, and had strolled up to him and asked that he dance with her. He chose to ignore the question from the back of his mind that asked how she could dance with him and play an instrument at the same time. He had tried to refuse her request, but Cloud had stood up and, after announcing that he was now princess of the Garden, declared that Leon was required to dance with all teachers, concubines, seeds, and monkeys…. God, Leon hated these dreams.

"You should just relax, you know," Quistis said in a very matter-of-fact tone. "Thinking about it too much is bad for you."

"Should you really be saying things like that?" Leon asked, looking over to Cloud, who was now seated on a throne, Tifa at his side painting his nails and Aerith attempting to do something with his hair involving many multicoloured ribbons, while Yuffie skipped round them scattering glitter over them. There was something deep inside of him telling him that he really should enjoy this scene while it lasted. A hard task when part of his brain was still trying to convince him that this was a normal everyday occurrence. He could already feel the headache he was going to have when he woke up.

"Dreams rarely make sense," his partner said. "There's no point thinking about it too much."

"I hate these dreams; when I know I'm dreaming."

"But it's the only way that I can see you. You never come to see me."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

He turned back to his partner, knowing before he saw her that she was no longer Quistis, though unsure when exactly she had changed into the dark haired woman in front of him now.

"Why haven't you come to see me? Please come, come find me." She rested her head on his chest. "I love you," she whispered.

The room fell away, or perhaps it had fallen away a long time ago. It didn't matter; they still continued to dance.

"I love you," he whispered back. "I never stopped."

She looked up at him, pleading, "Then where are you?" Leon watched with sickening dread as chains wrapped themselves around his lover, tightening so that they dug into her skin. "Why are you not here?" There was a resounding crack as her wings snapped under the pressure of the chains, "Why have you left me?" She was crying now, but instead of water, black blood seemed to run from her eyes, leaving behind black streaks. "Why haven't you come to-"

And then Leon did what he always did at this point; he woke up.

(&)

"Sora, there really isn't anything we can do." The small group of friends made their way to their cave, scrambling up the rock face. "We don't know his name, or what he looks like, or even her name. How are we supposed to find him?" Riku stopped at the month of their cave, watching as Sora climbed onto the ledge as well.

"I know, but we said we'd help," Sora said, pulling Kairi onto the ledge next to him, admitting to himself that if it were not for this minor fact, he probably wouldn't bother either. It did seem like a lost cause.

"She probably doesn't remember that she spoke to us," Riku argued, leading the way into their secret spot, looking back at them. "I doubt we'll even see her again. She did walk off a cliff."

"Oh!" Kairi exclaimed.

Sora grinned. "Looks like you were wrong about not seeing her again."

He felt a small rush of smugness as Riku turned and saw, to his surprise, that the subject of their conversation was right there in their cave. She sat against the opposite wall, her legs drawn up to her body. She looked as if she were one step away from bursting into tears.

Kairi was by the girl's side before the two boys, her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Are you OK?"

"Nooo," she almost wailed. "I can't find my knight anywhere, not the real him, and his head doesn't want to listen to me." She looked up. "And I can't get out of my prison to look for him."

'Oh boy,' Sora thought. 'looks like it's gonna be another of those conversations.'

"You're here," Riku pointed out, not really sounding as if his whole heart was in this.

"But I'm not!" this time she did wail, and tears came with it. "I'm locked away, I reminded myself of it."

"But we can see you right here," Kairi said gently. "We can feel you," and to emphasise her point, she patted the girl on the shoulder.

"But that doesn't mean I'm here." Her hands found themselves in her hair, gripping tightly as she continued. "He was supposed to come. My knight was supposed to save me, but he never came. Why? They won't let me out, either. If they let me go, I could find him." She took a great shuddering breath. Sora felt uneasy; that voice, it almost didn't seem to fit her – it felt… wrong. She seemed different from before; last time she merely seemed absent minded, perhaps in an extreme sense, like she was in her own fantasy world, but the girl in front of them seemed on the edge of insanity. Despite the unease, he couldn't help but feel pity towards her; to have been pushed this far from reality. Surely she couldn't have deserved it.

"Why wouldn't they?"

"I don't know. I'm locked in, I can't get away, but now I can't remember why. I need someone to help me out." She looked up, the tears stopped, and dark, very dark eyes looked at Sora pleadingly. "I just want to find my knight."

"We don't know where you are," Riku pointed out. "We can't help you if we don't know where you are."

Sora thought for a moment. "I know; we ask around at Radiant Garden."

"Radiant Garden."

They turned back to the stranger, who had hissed the words angrily.

"You know it?" Riku asked, not bothering to hide his surprise that she actually remembered something.

"It's them. They did this, they shut me away, trapped me in this glorified cell. They took away my knight, stopped me going into the free world. They, they," as she went on her eyes seemed to grow even darker, she seemed less like herself, whatever that could be considered, and her voice seemed even more out of place. "They're scared; they don't like what I am."

"We'll help you," Sora said quickly, cutting off her angry spiral, and he could almost hear Riku mentally slapping himself.

The girl blinked up at him, her eyes rich brown again. She beamed up at him. "You're so nice."

"Sora, we may not be able to help," Riku warned, and he got the feeling that Riku wasn't just talking about their ability to do so.

"We've got to try though, if we can't find her knight, then at least we can try and help her this way."

"We should talk to your friends there, I'm sure someone will know something about her," Kairi put in. "That's okay, right…oh!"

The two boys looked down at the girl's sound of surprise, only to find Kairi sitting alone. Well, he guessed that explained why she wasn't dead after walking off a cliff, well… sort of.

"I don't like this," Riku said immediately.

"She seems harmless enough," Kairi said, but even she didn't sound completely convinced.

"She's hiding something."

"Maybe she's just angry," Sora supplied, "That's the only time she seems to get…" He trailed off for a moment, unsure how to describe what he meant. "Most of the time she seems like she couldn't hurt us if she wanted to. I don't think she's pretending either."

"She doesn't seem like she could have done anything that deserves being locked up," Kairi admitted thoughtfully. "I think it's best if we talk to your friends in Radiant Garden," she concluded. "Someone is bound to know something."

Sora couldn't deny that. Radiant Garden was the only thing that had got a proper reaction from the girl, so she had to have ties. He was sure that between Tron, Leon and Merlin they could find something out about her. After all, it wasn't as if she blended in.

Riku nodded. "I agree with that."

Sora grinned. "So; to Radiant Garden!"

**End of Chapter 3**

Well, hope you enjoyed it. Review and tell me what you thought.


	4. Streams of Silver, Toys of Olden Days

**Chapter 4-Streams of Silver, Toys of Olden Days  
**

"For the last time Aerith, I am not wearing a dress!"

Well, that was one of the strangest things Leon could have walked in on. It looked as if Cloud hadn't been exaggerating about Aerith after all. Reminded of his dream the previous night, Leon glanced at the dress and was disappointed to find that it wasn't a pink ruffled one but instead a rather plain purple one. Everyone seemed to have gathered in the common room of the house to watch the epic, if not slightly unusual, clash of wills. Even Cid had his back turned on his precious computer to watch the scene unfold. Leon supposed it was a testimony to Aerith's power of persuasion that Cloud hadn't walked out by now; either that, or it was an indication of how much Cloud liked the brunette.

"Please Cloud, just for a minute or two."

"Ask someone else."

"But no one else will fit into it."

Leon wasn't sure he even wanted to know why Aerith had made a dress that only fit Cloud. Shrugging aside this thought, he decided now would be the time to step in.

"Go on Cloud – it's even your colour." At the sound of his voice everyone turned to look at him, as he stepped into the room fully. Cloud, having now turned slight red, looked just about ready to grab the dress and see just whose colour it was.

"Cloud in a dress – now that I would pay to see." A new voice came from behind Leon, and Quistis stepped into the room, alerting everyone to her presence.

"Well, look who came to see us," Cid called from the computer, giving what was half wave, half salute, but remaining firmly in his seat. "How've ya bin?"

"I've been well, and it's good to see you too Cid. And…" She turned to everyone else, "everyone else as well, of course."

"Are you staying for long?" The question came from Aerith, who had quickly come to stand by the older woman, a smile firmly in place.

"I'm afraid not. I'm just here to do a little favour."

"Really? Who for?"

"For you." Quistis smiled at everyone's rather confused expression. She was enjoying this, Leon thought. She was definitely enjoying this. For a moment he wondered if she was actually going to tell them what this favour was. "Leon said you wanted to learn how to dance," she finally explained, "So he asked me to teach you."

"Really?" Yuffie leapt over the back of the couch, a huge grin plastered over her face, making Leon wonder if she'd have the patience to learn to dance, or whether she'd just get bored after an hour and decide that her way of doing things was better. He had a feeling that her way would have everyone else cradling broken bones.

Cloud seemed to release what was going to happen next and started edging his way slowly towards the front door.

"Leon actually asked you?" Tifa entered the conversation, stepping next to Aerith.

"I said that I'd find someone to teach you."

"Yes, but…." She let it hang. Leon wasn't sure if he should feel offended or not at her obvious lack of faith in him.

"Shall we get started, then?" Quistis said. Cloud, now half way across the room, moved back against the wall. Leon smiled. Did Cloud actually think he'd be able to get out of this?

"Well boys, that's our cue to leave," Cid said, finally standing from his computer, stretching.

"Sorry, Cid, I need all you boys here. We need partners, after all."

"I ain't dancing," Cid announced, crossing his arms over his chest. Leon watched, and Cloud hid a smile, no doubt grateful for the distraction that Cid was creating.

"Oh, I think you will."

Cloud was nearly across the room. It really quite surprising how quietly he managed to get away, while moving so quickly.

"After all, it is four of us against you. I'm sure Yuffie and Tifa will be more than willing to use force."

Cloud had now reached the front door; all he had to do now was figure out how to open the door and slip out with none of them noticing. Well, if Leon realised that this would be this entertaining, he would have asked Quistis earlier.

In the centre of the room, Yuffie's grin widened and Tifa cracked her knuckles. They looked like they were about to do any number of things, but learning to dance was not one of them.

"Yeah, well, ya must have miscounted; Cloud's with me on this one, ain't ya Cloud?"

Cloud's hand snapped back from the door handle and he turned round to face the room. If Leon didn't find this so funny, he would have felt sorry for Cloud. This didn't seem to be his day.

"I don't dance," he simply said.

"You do now." Tifa stepped forward, latching onto his arm so he couldn't escape, effectively claiming the blond man as her partner.

"I'd give in, Cid," Leon advised. "You're not going to be able to get away this time."

"I wouldn't be so smug, Leon," Quistis added. "Just because I'm teaching, doesn't mean you can escape so easily. I need someone to help demonstrate."

"Ah, I wanted Leon to be my partner," Yuffie exclaimed.

"I'm sure we can share him. Right, Leon?"

Leon shrugged; he knew escape was too much to hope for. "Whatever."

Shaking her head at his answer she turned back to her potential pupils. "Let's get started, then. Now, come here, Leon."

Everyone moved to the edges of the room or sat on chairs out of the way as Leon made his way over to the teacher. Tifa still latched onto Cloud as if he would make a break for it if she let go – which, in all fairness, he probably would.

The girls watched with rapt interest as Quistis explained the basics of the waltz: the steps, the beat and how to hold one's partner. Cid looked round the room, looking for an escape route, but only until Cloud shot him a look that quite clearly stated that if he had to suffer then so did Cid. Leon felt his hands being placed in position, much like when he had first danced with a certain little dark-haired girl. Then she started moving, half dragging him along with her.

"I thought the guy was supposed to lead?" Yuffie asked, appearing quite confused.

"I thought Leon knew how to dance," Cloud added, taking the chance to get his own back for the dress comment.

Leon gritted his teeth in annoyance. "I haven't danced for several years." Not that that had stopped Quistis from remembering. How she remembered the dance straight off after 10 years, Leon had no idea. Did she get bored on guard duty, whip up a quick band and ask Irvine for a quick waltz around the room every now and then?

"Don't worry, Leon is a quick learner. He managed to master the basics very quickly in our first lesson. Shall we start again? I think we've refreshed your memory." Quistis added the last part to Leon, stopping the awkward waltz.

Oh yes, his memory had been refreshed alright. There were flashes of black hair and snatches of music as they had moved.

_You're the minister's son, right?_

Quistis smiled up at Leon, a gleam in her eye. "But then you did have a teacher at your first ball."

_Dance with me._

"Really? Who?" Yuffie's voice came from across the room.

Leon stepped back into the dance, though this time they moved smoothly, as Leon went though the motions of the steps he'd done hundreds of times before.

"It doesn't matter."

_I'll teach you._

Quistis dropped her voice. "It mattered enough to learn to dance for her."

_You're an awful dancer. Learn to dance so we can dance properly next time. Okay?_

"You learnt to dance for her!?" Somehow Yuffie had snuck up beside them. "Who was it?"

_Did you learn to dance then?_

Quistis offered him a little apologetic look. He kept his eyes on her, ignoring Yuffie's question and pushing away the memories rather than acknowledge the curious looks everyone was giving him. He focused on the dance. He was here to help teach them to dance, not brood over the past.

"Leon, who was it?" Yuffie put her hands on her hips as she watched the pair dance. "Leon?"

Quistis spoke up on her friend's behave, "It doesn't matter, Yuffie. It was a long time ago."

"I still wanna know," Yuffie insisted. "Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeon."

He ignored her. After a moment silence she grinned and sweetly said, "Squall…."

To the eye, nothing changed, but the atmosphere suddenly grew very tense.

"It's Leon," he corrected, deadpan, but his fingers twitched and tightened slightly on Quistis.

"No, I think it's Squall."

_Squall… as in a storm. I like it, it suits you._

Quistis stepped away from Leon. "Okay, I think everyone should pair up, and we'll go through it together."

"Not until _Squall_ has answered my question."

"Don't call me that."

"I stop calling you Squall when you tell me who you learnt to dance for."

_You're a lot better this time._

"Yuffie." Quistis's voice held a warning edge to it.

"Didn't you want to learn to dance, Yuffie?" Aerith stepped in to defuse the situation that was rapidly forming.

"And now I want Squall to answer my question."

_Squall, will you be my knight?_

"Drop it Yuffie." Even Cloud was realising that Leon was rapidly running out of patience. Why couldn't Yuffie just drop it?

"No! Squall, Squall, Squall," she continued in a sing-song voice.

_Squall. Squall, I'm going to lose control._

"Squall, Squall, Squall."

_Squall. SQUALL. SQUALL, KILL ME!_

"Damn it, Yuffie! Stop using that damned name!" His fist connected with the table as the words tore from his throat. The room went completely still and everyone watched him. Leon focused his glare on Yuffie, who watched him like a frightened rabbit. Eventually Quistis stepped towards her old friend, but he took a step back.

"I'm going for a walk." And he quickly fled the room.

"I didn't want to learn to dance, anyway," Yuffie suddenly declared, eyes watery, before dashing out of the room.

Quistis sighed. "Well, that went badly."

"I'll talk to Yuffie," Aerith said, and she followed the ninja out.

"What about Leon?" Tifa asked.

"Leave him for the moment," Quistis said. "He'll calm down and be back soon enough." She turned and grinned. "In the meantime, I still have a lesson to teach."

"What!?"

**End of Chapter 4**


	5. The Flowers of Wonder,Hidden Treasure

**Chapter 5-The Flowers of Wonder, And the Hidden Treasures  
**

Cloud wandered the halls of the Castle, looking through doorways as he went. Leon hadn't returned for dinner, and the atmosphere during the meal had grown increasingly tense and worried. In an attempt to escape, Cloud had volunteered to go and find their missing leader, while the others had their dessert. So here he was, wandering the halls after failing to find him in either the bailey or the ballroom. Cloud was certain that he was in the castle somewhere – it was, after, all abandoned – and Leon undoubtedly wanted to be alone.

He poked his head into another doorway, and was relieved to see the elder man there. The room was half destroyed, the outer wall having crumbled away, exposing the room to the outside world and the elements. Leon rested his back against one wall, sitting on the once soft carpet. One knee was drawn up against him as he rested his forehead against it.

Cloud considered walking away again, feeling as if he was intruding upon some kind of private moment. He wasn't really good with personal problems and dealing with them. He had expected to find Leon simply brooding somewhere, but willing to come but with a small nudge. However, if he didn't step in Leon would probably spend the night here.

He pushed the door fully open and stepped over to the man. Leon didn't react till Cloud slid down beside him, only then did he straighten. When Leon didn't tell him to go get lost, he spoke.

"You're definitely brooding now," he attempted in a semi-joke, but his comment was only met by silence. He assumed the lack of response was a yes, though it left him with nowhere to go.

"You missed dinner."

Silence. Cloud began to wish that one of the girls were here as well or, even better, instead of him. This was very awkward, and the silence only made it more uncomfortable. Part of him wished he'd just stayed at the house; at least there he didn't feel obliged to do something and there were others to break the silence.

He cast about for something else to say, to get a response from the other man. "Yuffie is sorry, she wants to apologise."

Again, he was met with stony silence and Cloud idly wondered if this was what people felt like when they tried to talk with him. He was casting around for something else to say when Leon finally decided to speak.

"I should apologize as well. I shouldn't have lost my temper."

This time, it was Cloud who didn't respond. He couldn't argue with the other man, but then he also wanted to point out that, in all honestly, he felt as if Yuffie had been asking for it.

"You've been thinking more about her." He paused, wondering if he'd gone too far. "You thought you saw her in the ballroom."

Leon turned his head, looking at him, for the first time. There was an inquiring spark in his eyes.

"You've been coming up to here every evening," he gave in the way of an explanation.

"I wanted to see if it was her, but I haven't seen her since."

Silence descended again making Cloud once again wish for the presence of one of the girls. Nothing! He could think of nothing to say. He turned to look out the broken wall, maybe hoping that inspiration would come, but all he saw was the plain were they had once fought the army of heartless with Sora.

"It used to be a meadow, didn't it?" he asked Leon.

"Yeah."

"Aerith's mother looked after us in the orphanage."

Leon nodded, indicating he knew this. Of course he would, Cloud realised; she was a close friend of Leon's father after all.

"She used to take us down there to play when we were young," Cloud wasn't sure why he was mentioning this; perhaps he was just desperate to break the silence, or maybe it was just that, for this short time, the normal rules were being disregarded.

Leon smiled. "She loved the meadow as well." There was no need to ask who 'she' was, just as he knew it was the same 'she' that he had learnt to dance for. "That's why this was our room."

Both men were avoiding eye contact, appearing to look out the missing wall. Though Cloud stole glances out of the corner of his eye, Leon's eyes, though fixed in the direction of the meadow, were distant, seeing more into the past than the present – but then they turned away from the barren land. His head fell back against the wall and he closed his eyes.

"She lost control here."

Cloud's eyes shot to Leon, whose eyes were shut as if he could block out the memories. "But not before laying in bed for days, weeks, fighting the darkness as it tried to consume her. I watched as she tried to defeat it, trying not to let her cries tear me apart. She'd be fine sometimes, but at other times all I could do was hold her as she screamed."

Cloud shifted uncomfortably.

"She knew what would happen; when she lost control and the darkness took control of her. She said that if she lost control I had to kill her, that it was my duty as her knight. That's all she did before she lost control – asked and begged for me to kill her."

Cloud remained silent, waiting for Leon to finish, listening to a very private part of the older man that he would never have expected to know and wondering why he was being told this.

"I would have stayed by her side after the darkness took over her. I nearly took on the role as her dark knight. I would have if we didn't have a plan, somewhere to contain her."

Again Cloud remained silent. He knew what the others would have said; they would have rushed to tell him that he was wrong, that the other man could never side with the darkness. He held his tongue. He hadn't been there and he knew little about what had happened, something that Leon seemed now determined to change. He had no idea what Leon would have done, so he didn't waste time on hollow words with no meanings. He was sure that that wasn't why Leon was telling him this. He didn't know why, but it wouldn't be for pity or shallow comfort.

"I promised her that I would come back for her, that I would return to her side soon with a cure for her, but nearly ten years later, I'm still as clueless now as I was then." He opened his eyes and fixed Cloud with a determined gaze. "Cloud, I need you to make me a promise."

Reluctantly, Cloud shifted his eyes to meet Leon's. He realised he was going to find out why he had been told about this segment of the older man's past. "What is it?"

"I need you to promise me that you'll stay and protect Radiant Garden."

Cloud shifted his gaze, avoiding the brunet's. "I can't. I have my own darkness-"

Leon interrupted him. "If you let them, everyone will help you, but someone needs to look over our home."

Cloud grew suspicious. "Why me?"

"Because you can," Leon said evasively.

Now Cloud was definitely suspicious and he didn't like were his suspicions were leading him. "And who will I be protecting us from?"

"Anyone. Anyone who threatens our home."

Cloud ignored the underlying words; what was not said both men understood. He continued to avoid the man's gaze, fearing he would agree if he did. "Why say this suddenly?"

Leon was silent for a moment, collecting his thoughts. "She's been in my dreams."

Cloud blinked at the more then slightly odd reply. To say it wasn't what Cloud had expected was a slight understatement, and he was left to say the only thing that came to mind: "So?"

"I don't mean I've been dreaming of her," his companion tried to clarify. "I mean, she's been visiting my dreams. She always has, but it's been getting worse recently, more often and more vivid. She comes almost every night now. She's calling me."

"Do you think you'll go?"

Leon looked away. "No,"

Cloud felt relieved at Leon's reply. The man was an important pillar in the world, one he didn't fancy replacing or finding a replacement for. He couldn't do Leon's job, he knew that, and he didn't want to even think about trying. Though perhaps more than that, Cloud realised, he had come to regard the other man as a friend.

His friend continued, "But her power is growing. If she escapes, if I see her again, I don't know if I can resist. I still love her." The last bit was added quietly, making the blond wonder if he was supposed to have heard it or not.

Cloud understood. He didn't like it, but he understood. "I guess we'll have to stop you then."

Leon's eyes shot back to Cloud who watched him sideways and younger man's lips twitched to give him a rare, small smile. "I don't fancy filling your place, or finding someone else to do it."

Leon gave his own small smile in return, but underneath it still lay the unanswered question. "Do you really think I'll leave this place if it was in danger?" The blond questioned.

"I guess not," and he seemed to relax, looking back out of the missing wall.

Cloud only wished that he could relax as well. Leon had opened up a very personal part of his life to him, one that he doubted he'd ever told anyone else. Though he knew why the other man had done it, so he understood the situation more clearly, he still felt as if things were unbalanced between them. Yes, Leon had laid a large responsibility on him, but it wasn't anything that Cloud wouldn't have taken up anyway. He squirmed inwardly at what he was going to do. Talking was not his strong point; hitting things with a big sword, yes; fighting hundreds of heartless, yes; talking about his personal history, no.

So he threw himself in. "You used to come to the orphanage sometimes?"

Leon looked back, vaguely confused. "Sometimes, usually to see friends, or Aerith's mother, but I remember other people."

"Do you remember a boy called Zack?"

Leon chuckled. "Vividly; he had a crush on Aerith, they were good friends." He looked at Cloud sideways, smirking. "I also remember that you used to follow him whenever you could. I believe Quistis used to describe it as being 'Like a cloud following a hurricane.'"

The younger man fought down the heat in his cheeks, nodding. Needless to say, this was not the way he wanted to be remembered by anyone, but there were worse ways to be remembered, he reasoned. Like 'Cloud: the boy who managed to lock himself in the toilet and couldn't get out for 2 hours'.

"He died protecting me."

Leon's smile quickly disappeared. "I'm sorry."

"We were corned on the day the Heartless invaded. He had a weapon, I didn't, and so he stayed in front of me and protected me. Before he died, he asked me to find Aerith and look after her, but I never made it to Cid's ship."

He was surprised when the silence that followed wasn't awkward, and that he felt slightly better after the confession. Though he wasn't actually sure if this was from the confession itself, or the feeling of repaying the 'favour' to Leon.

"You didn't have to tell me this." He wasn't scalding and something in his voice said that he was grateful for the gesture.

"I know."

There was a sense of common understanding as the two looked out towards the horizon.

(&)

'To radiant Garden!' This proved to be slightly easier said then done. The problem being that they had no gummy ship, and with no gummy ship, they had no way to travel from one world to the next. Or so Sora thought.

"What about Riku?" Kairi suggested.

"What about Riku?" Sora asked, confused by the girl's suggestion. They couldn't just hop onto Riku's back and he'd fly them to Radiant Garden, no matter how funny that idea seemed.

"Well, can't you take us there; create a path, like when you rescued me from Axel?"

Well, that made a lot more sense, he admitted. Not only did it make a lot more sense, it seemed to solve their problem. "That's a great idea, Kairi!"

Riku didn't seem quite so happy with the idea. "It means travelling through the darkness."

"Don't worry Riku," Sora exclaimed, slapping him on the back, "We'll all be together." It was a simple way of saying, 'we'll be there for you', but Riku seemed to get the message, as the slowly nodded.

"I haven't done it for a long time. I doubt it will work properly," he argued half-heartedly.

"Well, we can try, and if it doesn't work we'll try to think of something else," Kairi suggested.

Reluctantly Riku turned away, and lifted his hand up summoned a dark swirling tunnel.

"Looking good so far," Sora said, grinning at his friend.

"It might not take us to the right place," Riku pointed out.

"Only one way to find out," and Sora dashed forward.

His friends ran after him, and when Riku reminded him that they should stick together, he slowed down and let the older boy take the lead. Instead Sora turned his attention to the strange darkness and nothingness around them for the short journey.

"Is this it?" He asked, as another portal appeared before them.

"I think so," Riku said, and they stepped though.

Sora looked around at were they had appeared; it was most definitely not Radiant Garden.

**End of Chapter 5**


	6. In the Meadows of Life My Acre of Heaven

**A/N: **I'm baaaaack! With another chapter as well! Well, enjoy, things are gonna start kicking off soon.

**Chapter 6-In the Meadows of Life, My Acre of Heaven  
**

'Well,' Quistis thought. 'This was unexpected.'

When Leon had failed to turn up at dinner, she had begun to worry. It wasn't that Leon missing dinner was unusual, but it also wasn't unusual for Leon to bottle things up and dwell on unpleasantness in the past. No, that wasn't what was unexpected. Nor was it the fact that Cloud had left to find their missing leader; she thought Cloud would have done almost anything to escape the awkward atmosphere. The awkward atmosphere that had hung over the dinner table, even as dessert was being served, wasn't unexpected either. In fact, Quistis had expected this atmosphere to continue till Yuffie and Leon made up.

But then, she hadn't counted on three teenagers appearing out of what seemed to be a tear in space and stumble across the table, sending the pudding dish flying into the wall. Yuffie had ducked just in time to avoid a plate that had been kicked in her direction. Quistis had merely looked up at the trio in detached confusion as Yuffie then called out a cheerful greeting.

So here she was now, in the sitting area with everyone, including their three guests, who were apparently known by her friends. Dessert had been replaced with ice pops as introductions were made and Yuffie chatted away, happy for the time being.

"Sorry about the table again," the brunet – Sora, she believed – said, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Riku's kinda rusty."

"This was our third attempt," the girl, Kairi, said and giggled. "First time we ended up in some woman's bathroom."

"She was still in the bath," Riku put in, speaking for the first time.

Sora blushed and Kairi giggled louder. "Sora nearly fell in the bath," Kairi supplied watching her friends go even redder. "He only just managed to stop himself. The woman was too surprised to do anything but stare at us. Not that they were any better." She indicated the two boys beside her.

"Oh dear, poor woman," Aerith said, though she did so through a smile.

"It gets worse," Sora groaned, going even redder, if that was possible. Quistis couldn't help but wonder if the boy was going to burst into flames and turn into their very own human torch.

"She finally snaps out of if," Kairi said, her voice shaking with laughter, "and starts screaming at us. She even threw this at us." And she held up a bottle of shampoo for them all to see. "So we try to get away, I've never seen them so desperate to get away from anything before, when-" At this point Kairi doubled over with laughter, unable to say anything more. Quistis patiently for the young girl to control herself, but it wasn't to be, and instead Riku spoke up.

"Her husband came in."

Yuffie was now rolling around on the floor and Kairi was struggling to breathe, while Sora settled for burying his face in his hands.

"W-w-w-what h-happened next?" Yuffie finally managed to get out. At this Kairi fell out of her chair and onto the floor next to Yuffie, still laughing madly.

"He was as shocked as the woman." Sora's voice was muffled by his hands. "He just stood there, staring at us for a few minutes. Then when he realised what was going on he went very red and looked very angry. Kairi then had the nerve to say; 'I don't suppose you could point us in the direction of Radiant Garden?' The guy started spluttering so we ran for it."

Kairi had calmed down enough to sit up and add, "We ran out, slammed the door and found ourselves face-to-face with their daughter. So I pointed out that the bathroom was occupied so she probably wouldn't want to go in there and we ran down the stairs and out the front door."

Tifa coughed over her laughter, and Aerith covered her mouth with her hand. Quistis shook her head but couldn't stop the smile from escaping her. At least Yuffie seemed happy.

Said girl rolled to her knees, getting out the last few chuckles. "So why were you guys trying to get to us?"

Sora lifted his face from his hands, still sporting an impressive blush. "We need some help." He looked around the room. "Where's Leon?"

The cheerful atmosphere immediately disappeared, along with Yuffie's previous good mood. The three friends looked around at their hosts, unsure at what had caused the sudden change.

"I made Leon really mad earlier," Yuffie explained. "He went off and hasn't come back since. Cloud went off to find him, but I think I really upset Leon this time."

Quistis felt another pang of sympathy for the girl through her loyalty to Leon. Yuffie may have unfairly pushed the man too far, but then she was too young to understand what sensitive grounds she was treading on. She would have to give Leon a light slap round the head when she saw him next and tell him to stop brooding on things he couldn't change. Or at least not bite other people's head off when he did so.

"Have you apologized?" Kairi asked, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I haven't had a chance."

Sora leapt up, all traces of his blush gone. "Then we'll help you look for him, and then you can apologize and make up."

Quistis wondered if he was always this eager and ready to do everything. The teacher in her wondered if he was this eager in school. Probably not, she decided; there seemed to be some natural law of science, or maybe magic, that dictated that students were never eager to learn, at least not in school.

"I'll come as well," Quistis added, rising from her own seat. "I need to get back soon anyway."

"Already?" Aerith asked, her disappointment mirrored in Cid and Tifa's faces.

"I'm afraid so; duty calls."

"Shame to see ya go," Cid said from beside his computer. "Do miss talking to a fellow adult. I'm surrounded by kids all day."

"Hey, I'm not a kid!" Yuffie bounced to her feet, looking exactly like what she claimed not to be.

"Sure ya ain't, kid." He waved her off.

"Come on Yuffie." Quistis quickly stepped in before Yuffie offended another one of her friends. "I think one fall out between friends is enough for today," and she gently pushed the young ninja towards the door.

"It was good to see you again Quistis," Tifa said as the youngest members left the house. "Next time make sure you stay for longer."

"I hope I can stay longer next time as well." With a quick wave she turned and followed the teenagers, leaving the warm house and into the cool evening air and heading back to the lonely room in the heart of the old castle, with only a womanising sniper to keep her company. It really wasn't as fun as it sounded. She looked up at the stars, savouring them while she could.

(&)

"What's your problem then?" Sora turned towards the older woman, who he'd been told was a childhood friends of Leon's and the ex-teacher of many a restoration committee. She certainly had the look of a teacher about her, but one of those really pretty ones that all the boys had a crush on. She also seemed to have the patience to be able to have taught his Radiant Garden friends. Even her weapon was rather teacher like; a whip to punish naughty children.

She smiled down at him as they walked towards the castle. Yuffie was dashing ahead of them, throwing questions to Kairi and Riku as she went. She was eager to take advantage of the walk to get to know his infamous friends a little.

"Well, it's kinda complicated and weird."

"I think if Yuffie can become acquainted with your friends, then I think I have time to listen to some of your problems."

He turned his gaze away from her, and watched his friends up ahead of him. "We're trying to help someone."

"A friend of yours?"

"Actually, we've only meet a couple of times. We don't even know her name," he admitted sheepishly.

He heard a soft chuckle, and looked up ready to defend his actions. However instead of the mocking expression he expected, he found her expression soft.

"Do you always help strangers with their problems?" she asked, and Sora had the impression that there was hidden praise in her comment.

"Well, she seemed like she needed our help. She was really scatty," he said modestly. He looked away, before he got too embarrassed. "She said was being held prisoner and she thought it was here." He didn't notice the woman's eyes widened slightly. "So we wanna help her, or find her knight. She really wanted to find him, it was pretty much all she remembered."

If he had been watching her, he would have noticed the softness disappear from her eyes, changing her expression.

"What did she look like?" Quistis asked calmly.

Sora thought for a moment, "She was about my age, black hair, a bit longer the Kairi's and with a few brown streaks." He paused before adding, "She was also pretty, but don't tell Kairi I said that." He giggled nervously and looked back up at her.

"I won't. Did she say why she'd been imprisoned?"

Sora's nervous grin disappeared. "No, well, not really." He realised how stupid he sounded, and wondered how she took him seriously. She hadn't even asked how he had spoken and seen a girl who was supposedly imprisoned on a completely different world. To be honest, he had expected her to turn round and tell him that he'd been hit one too many times by a heartless rather then this calm reaction from her, this disconnected acceptance. She hadn't seemed surprised at all – but then, she didn't seem like the type to get surprised. Exasperated, yes; confused, maybe; surprised, not really.

As Sora thought about the older woman she seemed lost in her own thoughts as well, but when she spoke, she surprised Sora.

"It's not good to just help people like that."

"What?"

"You don't know why she was imprisoned, if she's dangerous, or if she's even telling the truth."

"But she's harmless. I mean, if you met her, you'd understand. She's more likely to walk off a cliff then harm someone." He was reminded that she had done exactly this on their first meeting, and seemed to come out perfectly fine. Perhaps that wasn't the best example.

"Things aren't always as they seem. Life is more complicated than that."

He felt stung; of course he knew life was more complicated than that. After all he had been through as the keyblade wielder, especially with Riku. That didn't mean he had to stop believing in people though. He'd never given up on Riku, so why should he give up on someone who had never given him a reason to doubt her? Or had she? He pushed the image of those unnatural black eyes from his mind. That wasn't enough. The beast seemed more dangerous and harsh then the young girl – it was just strange, not dangerous.

"She hasn't given me a reason to doubt her. She's just looking for her knight."

"Surely the fact the knight isn't there is a bad sign."

"We don't know why he isn't there. Maybe he just can't find her. Like I couldn't find Kairi and Riku, doesn't mean she's done anything bad. We can't use that against her."

She shook her head. "Using my own argument against me."

"I've helped a lot of people, some of them gave me a lot more reason not to help them than this girl. I got this far by believing in people."

She sighed, much like an exasperated parent. "I don't think this is one of those times, Sora."

"I can't go back now without even trying to find out more."

"Then, why don't you leave it to me. I'll look into it, and if you're right we can rescue her."

He had the uneasy feeling that she was trying to get rid of him. "I'd rather not."

"You don't trust me." She didn't say it as an accusation, just a fact, but it made him turn back to where his friends where entering the castle, avoiding her eyes.

"It's not that," he said, knowing he wasn't being entirely truthful.

"What if we talk to Leon and leave it with both of us. You trust Leon, don't you?"

Yes, he trusted Leon, but he still didn't like this.

"Come on, you two," Kairi's voice floated down from the doorway.

"Yeah, come on slow-pokes," Yuffie called, poking her head round the entrance.

"Coming!" Sora called back, dashing to catch up to his friends, but before he got too far he stopped, and turned back to the older woman.

"I trust Leon," he said, "but I promised her that _I'd_ help her. So I've got to do all I can." He turned round and said, "Besides, I have both Riku and Kairi with me now. We can deal with anything together," and dashed off to his friends, missing how Quistis shook her head at his retreating back.

End


	7. A 5 Year Old Winter Heart, In a place

Chapter 7- A Five Year-Old Winterheart, In a Place I Call Home 

"Well as he's not in the Bailey," Yuffie loudly declared as she strode away from the stairs where they had left Quistis, "so he's gotta be in the ballroom." She turned around and grinned at them, never halting her onward, and now backwards, merry pace. "We only found it a few days ago. Well, I did, every one else knew about it already, they just never told me. We're gonna rebuild the castle though; Leon said we would, after the town of course, and afterwards we'll rebuild the ballroom and have a ball. You'll come of course."

She barely paused for them to register this before ploughing onwards. "It'll be great! We'll dress up and everything! We're even learning to dance; that's why Quistis was here, well, that's supposed to be why she came. Even Leon knows how to dance. Isn't that funny? I never-"

"Sora, look," Riku's calm voice cut through Yuffie's continuous chatter. Sora's eyes followed the direction Riku's finger pointed to. In front of them stood a very familiar figure, her back turned to them.

"Hey!" Sora called dashing forward, "It's us!"

Before them, the young girl turned her eyes slightly wide. Her expression was clear of any recognition, as the three Destiny Islanders came to stand beside her, with a curious Yuffie in tow. When she continued to look blankly at them Sora asked, "You do remember us right?"

She lightly frowned for a moment, examining Sora from where she stood, before her face split into a wide grin. Clapping her hands together she happily exclaimed, "Sky!"

"…Erm, actually, it's Sora."

She waved the comment away with a flick of her wrist. "Same thing."

"Sure, OK." Sora decided to let it slide. "Well, here we are."

She blinked for a moment before happily clapping her hands again, this time accompanied by a small bounce on the balls of her feet.

"How wonderful. You're such kind children. I haven't been able to find anything." She leaned towards Kairi and stage whispered, "I think I'm bad at looking for things."

"Hey Sora," Yuffie said, reminding everyone of her presence. "Who's your friend?"

"We don't know her name," Riku replied. "She doesn't remember."

"She's looking for her knight," Kairi supplied.

"We came here to help her," Sora finished, turning back to the strange girl. "Maybe Yuffie can help; she lives here."

The girl suddenly looked interested. "She lives here?"

"Yep. I'm the great ninja Yuffie," she said, taking up her trademark pose.

The blue coated girl examined the ninja, her head slightly tilted. Finally she said coolly, "I don't know you," and the spark of interest faded and with it her acknowledgement of the ninja's existence. She went back to looking vaguely round the corridor, a slight frown back on her features, as if she had forgotten why she was here in the first place. Considering his past experiences with the girl, this seemed very the likely option. When it obvious that she wasn't going to start the conversation again, Sora broke the silence.

"So, how can we help?"

She turned back and looked thoughtfully at the trio, tapping her finger against her cheek. "I don't know where my knight is, so I think the best place to start is for you to come to me." She nodded to herself looking very pleased with herself. "Yes, that sounds like a clever place to start."

Yuffie giggled, "But you're here."

The girl continued to ignore her, talking instead to Sora. "You're not my knight, but I suppose you'll do. You may rescue me from my prison instead. Then I can go find my beautiful storm."

Yuffie screwed up her face slightly in annoyance. "Radiant Garden," she stated, "has no prisons."

The nameless girl turned her dark eyes to her. "I don't need you," she coldly retorted, before quickly turning back to Sora, her expression already completely changed. Her eyes started to water up.

"You'll help me won't you? You'll help me? Please. I want to be free again." Her hands rose to bury themselves in her hair and she looked away from the friends, focusing on the floor, expression glassy. "I can see nothing but sky and flowers and I hate it. I hate it and I want my knight, I need my knight. I'm so lonely and bored and…and…"

Kairi rested her hand on the girl's back and rubbed it comfortingly. "It's Ok, we came to help you."

"That's right," Sora added, "We'll come and find you."

She raised her head, only the wet trails on her cheeks gave away the despair she was in a moment ago. Her frown replaced by sweet smile that made Sora wonder how he could ever doubt her intentions.

"All you have to do is follow me. We'll go to my prison in the heart of Radiant Garden."

Behind him he heard a sharp intake of breath from Yuffie. He felt the mysterious girl take his hand and tug him towards the inner depths of the castle. "Come on Sky."

But before he had taken two steps he felt another hand on his other bicep. Turning he saw Yuffie's hand halting him, her eyes slightly wide. He vaguely felt his other hand released as Yuffie shook her head. "Sora, wait. I don't think you should go." Sora stared at his friend in surprise; he didn't think he'd ever seen her so serious before. "We should talk to-"

She never finished her sentence. Before Sora had realised it, the object of uncertainty was standing between them, facing Yuffie. The air became tense as she hissed something at Yuffie that Sora couldn't make out. Riku's face darkened.

Suddenly she was facing him again, the air clear and the atmosphere happy again. "Come on Sky, Sea and friend." She dashed past him, calling over her shoulder, "Follow me."

Sora took off after her and he could hear the rapid steps of his friends behind him. Yuffie called to him again, but he ignored her, concentrating on following the girl in front of him as she disappeared round a corner. He skidded round to see her disappear through a doorway. He battered aside the door as it threatened to slam into his face, barely avoiding a large stone on the other side. She was fast and he had no idea how she moved so quickly. She didn't seem to be troubled by the hundreds of pieces of debris and beams that littered this part of the castle, while he struggled to prevent himself from flying across the hallway and creating his very own Sora-shaped hole in the wall. He jumped over another large stone. She was moving as if she was on an open road rather than in a ruined castle, always remaining just in his sight. He ducked a beam. He could hear Yuffie's light footsteps just behind him, followed by Riku and Kairi's heavier ones.

The young 'sorceress' disappeared through another door at the top of a staircase. Chasing her he leapt up the last few steps and burst through the doorway. He had barely got into the corridor when his way was cut off when something streaked past him, calling a hasty 'Sorry kid,' as it went. Sora barely had time to grab to door to prevent himself crashing to the floor. He stared at the retreating back of the man. Well, he presumed it was a man with very long hair, rather than a very tall, broad and deep-voiced woman. The moments pause was enough for Yuffie to catch up with him.

"Who's that?" he asked.

Yuffie barely glanced at the man. "I don't know, but Sora, wait…"

Sora didn't wait, taking off after the man instead. Who ever he was, he seemed to be chasing the same person as they were. When Sora called out to him, all he got was another 'Sorry kid,' much to his annoyance. Well, at least he was easy enough to keep in sight; with his cowboy hat and yellow trench coat, he didn't exactly blend in with his background.

"Leon!" Sora nearly jumped out of his skin when the man called his friend's name. Peering round the broad back, Sora could see Leon standing just ahead of them, Cloud beside him, still emerging from an open doorway.

"Irvine?" Leon looked surprised, but it was quickly replaced with frown. "Then it was her."

"In a way," came the answer, as the man slowed to a halt near Leon. "Quistis sent me after her. I think she's taking the term 'girl chaser' a little too lit-"

"You and Cloud go back to Quistis," Leon interrupted, turning and quickly disappearing after the girl, not waiting for an answer. Sora came to a stop next to Cloud, catching Irvine mutter, "There he goes again," under his breath.

Sora considered following the older man – after all, Leon never said anything about him – but he stopped himself. Something about Leon had seemed intense – more than normal, that is – and he didn't think he'd be welcomed as a tag-a-long. Besides, he could trust Leon, right?

"Hey, it** is** Cloud." Sora looked up to see the 'cowboy' leaning forward, hands in pockets, to get a closer look at Cloud. Behind him, he could hear his friends coming to a stop. Seeming unaware of the attention he was attracting, albeit a confused attention, the man announced, "I remember you when you were tiny, always following Zack around. You've grown. You must be twice the size now and…" Irvine paused, his smile fading, "…you have no idea who I am."

Cloud dumbly shook his head, his expression still void of any recognition. Irvine shook his head and titled his hat back. "Typical. Forget a flash good-looking guy who grew up with you, but you remember Leon. Man, I need to find myself a sweet sorceress."

Beside Sora, Yuffie huffed, placing her hands on her hips, "And who are you?"

Irvine turned away from the increasingly bewildered Cloud to the ninja. His face split into a grin again.

"It's Tifa. You must remember me, Tifa. Come on, I gave you my first hat, to go with that cute little cowgirl outfit you got for your birthday."

"I'm Yuffie!" she replied, irritated.

"Little Yuffie? Little Yuffie who used to jump all over the furniture? That makes me feel old. Last time I saw you were even smaller then Cloud. You're a lot bigger and a lot prettier too." His grin widened. "You own me an ice-pop."

Yuffie blinked, thrown by the sudden change in subject. "What?"

"You owe me an ice-pop," Irvine repeated. "I was thirteen, matron gave us all ice-pops and you stole mine. You can't deny it, Zell squealed on you. You really should have known better then to tell Zell. Anyway, after 15 years, you own me a lot of interest on that ice-pop. I'm a generous guy, so how about you go on a date with me and we'll call it even."

Sora looked between the grinning cowboy and the ninja, her stance having lost all its certainty, and then back to the cowboy again. Sora may not know who this man really was, what he was doing here, or even if he meant the young sorceress any harm, but he had to hand it to this guy; he'd never seen anyone leave Yuffie gobsmacked.

End of Chapter 7


	8. Sailing the Waves of Past

A/N:  Sorry for the long update time. I had massive trouble writing this chapter and then I've been busy with uni and translating one of the FF8 Doujinshi I'm gonna be selling on, so it took a while.

Chapter 8-Sailing the Waves of Past

There were many things hidden away in the castle of Radiant Garden, many deep dark secrets, small joys and memories. This was one of them, Sora decided. It wasn't far from where he had rescued Kairi and the other Princesses of Heart two years ago. In fact, he suspected it was just above the great chamber, but this room was very different.

The room that Irvine had led his five newly acquired companions into wasn't large by any means, though it comfortably fit all seven members inside. Along one wall was a large computer, flashing lights and messages appearing every now and then, the low hum ensuring that the room was never silent. To the side was a small enclave which looked as if it were a small kitchenette, while on the opposite side of the room was a closed door, a bedroom, he guessed. What caught his attention, though, was on the wall facing him. It was what looked like a large mirror, but instead of a reflective surface, it was tinted a murky black, making it impossible to see anything clearly.

As the group entered, Quistis looked up from her position by the computer. "Did you catch her?"

"Nope," Irvine's short reply came. "Leon went after her."

Quistis frowned at the cowboy. "You let him go on his own?"

"You know Leon, didn't really get a chance to argue."

Sora listened to the exchange, his mind working to detangle the information, filling in the gaps of his knowledge.

"What is this place?" Yuffie's voice interrupted his thoughts as she strode past him. Her gaze raked the room till her eyes fell on the computer.

"Our humble abode: The Watch Room," Irvine replied with a slight flourish.

Yuffie's gaze turned back to the older man. "What do you watch?"

"Our little friend back there."

"Irvine," Quistis warned.

"You knew." Sora's voice was coloured with disbelief. "You knew all along."

His accusations were aimed at Quistis, but everyone turned to him. Quistis shook her head.

"Only when you mentioned she was here, but I didn't lie; she is dangerous. This isn't something you should play about with."

Sora felt a stab of indignation. Playing!? He wasn't playing about. How- This- He was very serious about this. He was perfectly aware that this wasn't a game.

"How do you know she's dangerous?"

There was no more of the gentle teacher in Quistis; everything in her manner was stern. "She's been infected by the darkness and we lost a good friend to that darkness in her when she lost control. It flows round her, poisoning her mind and body."

"Well so does—" he stopped before he blurted out his friend's name. If he did mention Riku's name, what would they do? Wold they try to lock him away as well? Besides, he didn't like her phrasing to be put in reference to his friend. "So do other people," he quickly finished.

Quistis shock her head. "Riku's different."

Sora blinked in surprise. Well, he guessed that he hadn't really been all that subtle about it after all.

"Why am I different?" Riku's voice drew attention towards where he stood to the side.

Quistis' eyes softened when they fell on the boy. "You are a keyblade wielder; that alone keeps the darkness at bay. However," and her eyes hardened and shifted to Sora again. "our friend is a sorceress. The darkness is attracted to her power, it craves it and the only way it can get it is to take control of her. It's now grown inside her for nearly ten years. "

"Ten years?" Sora's shock was evident.

Quistis nodded and Irvine took over. "We had to shut her away. She was our friend as well, but we didn't have much of a choice. We could either kill her, and Sq-Leon wouldn't let us do that, or seal her away until we could find a way to cure her. Know it looks bad kiddo, but it's the truth."

Sora nodded slowly, his mind working furiously, a plan forming.

"So all you need is a cure?"

Quistis smiled. "Yes."

"So if we find a cure, then you'll let her go?"

"Of course," Quistis agreed, eager that to turn his mind down other paths. "It'll be hard, but from what Leon says, if anyone can do it then you can."

"Alright then," and Sora turned round to his two friends, beaming, and winked. "So we have a plan!"

Riku shook his head, but Sora turned back to the ex-teacher.

"So," he started. "You live here?"

"Yep," Irvine replied instead. "Just me and Quisty here."

"Sounds boring," Yuffie said, eyeing the computer still. "Why do you stay here?"

"It's our friend, and Leon is needed with you guys, not that he doesn't stop by often enough."

Yuffie seemed to have lost interest in the subject already, more interested in the large computer. "So what's this for?"

"It's to monitor our friend. It was built by Ansem while he was still here," Quistis replied, swinging back into full teacher mode. "We can see who's on the other side of the barrier, and how the barrier is holding out. We can maintain it all from this computer."

"I've never seen that kind of doorway in the castle before."

"No, you wouldn't unless you'd been here before."

"So it's somewhere in this room," Sora continued, mentally thanking Yuffie for being so nosy.

"Of course."

Sora glanced round the room. "I don't see any doorway,"

Irvine laughed. "Not looking very hard."

Sora looked round the room more closely, utterly confused. All her saw was the kitchenette, the computer, his friends…

"The mirror," Riku stated, interrupting his train of thoughts.

"Bingo."

Sora walked towards said mirror. It was rather obvious now that he thought about it, the mirror stuck out in the room, but still…. "It doesn't look like a doorway." He stepped right up to the object, peering closely at it. At this distance he could see his own reflection and those of his two closest friends as they came to stand beside him. Shoving his face closer to the surface he shaded his eyes, attempting to see if he could see to the other side. Nothing; just the dark surface, but wait…no, the shapes were just his imagination.

Riku leaned closer as well, as if to imitate his friends, and breathed in his ear, "Be careful, don't do anything too rash," before straightening again. "I can't see anything."

"Nah, you wouldn't."

Sora straightened as well, resting his hand on the surface. It was strange, not hot or cold, it just...was. It was more like resting his hand on air, but there was definitely something under his hand.

"Why a mirror?" Kairi asked.

"Technically, it's a window," Quistis replied. "It only becomes a mirror after the sealing is done. Mirrors reflect, so it strengthens the barrier against physical and magical attacks. It's mostly symbolic though, it how Merlin's magic worked."

Sora pushed his hand against the surface and sure enough he felt a resistance. Lifting his hand he knocked, and his hand bounced off, but what was strange was that the surface made no noise at the contact.

"So how do you get to the other side?"

"With a key." The answer was obvious really.

"The computer?" Kairi asked.

Quistis shook her head. "The computer can only seal, not open. It focuses on maintaining the barrier, not destroying it."

Sora looked round the room again, idly wondering if his keyblade would work. Following the mirror wall his eyes came to rest on two globes hanging from the wall; one yellow, one red. He pointed towards them. "Those?"

Quistis smiled. "Well done."

Sora strolled over to the objects, not quite believing how easy this was going to be. "They're different colours. Is one yours and one Irvine's?"

Irvine shrugged, but Quistis laughed. "Nice try, but no. Yellow one opens the gateway as it goes through while the red one closes it."

"Wouldn't it be easier to have them both doing both jobs?"

"The spells would cancel each other out if they were in the some object. We can always lock it from this side, but I doubt just one of us would risk going through on their own."

"Wouldn't it make more sense for the yellow one to be green if it unlocks the door?" Kairi inquired from beside the mirror.

"It's just the way the magic reacts to the sphere."

"So you just have to be holding the object and it will open or lock as you go through?" Sora went for the final question.

"More or less."

Sora grinned. "Great! Well, thanks," and he swiped the yellow sphere, taking off towards the mirror as he did so.

Quistis watched as Sora grabbed the sphere, and took off. "Sora," she snapped, cursing her stupidity, and making her way to grab the boy. However, when she had only taken one step, he had taken the two to place him by the mirror, by her second he was through the mirror, closely followed by his friends.

She stopped, making a small noise of annoyance. Really, she had been a teacher for long enough to know when a kid was up to something. She should have seen this coming. She really had been stuck here too long. A hand rested on her shoulder. Looking up she saw Irvine's kind expression, "Sorry Quisty," he said. "But you completely deserved that."

She frowned up at him; that really didn't improve her mood.

"I'll get them." She looked round, startled, and realised that Cloud was also in the room with them, already stepping towards the mirror. Not that it was surprising that she'd overlooked him, the man made Leon look chatty by comparison.

Quistis wanted to object, this was after all her duty, her friend, but she stopped herself. Cloud knew the children better and she already knew that they wouldn't listen to her, though she wouldn't require them to listen next time she got her hands on them. No, she reasoned, Cloud was likely to have more success.

"Fine," she reluctantly agreed. "I'll close the door after you come back, but we'll give you five minutes and then Irvine and I are coming after you."

"I'll go with Cloud," Yuffie cried, but as she whizzed past Quistis grabbed her arm. "We need you on this side," Yuffie pouted, but didn't argue seeing Quistis' warning expression.

Quistis looked up, to see Cloud disappearing through the mirror and into the prison.

(&)

Leon slowed, drawing to a stop several steps behind the girl he'd been chasing. She had halted in the centre of the corridor; before her lay a fork in the paths. She glanced from one to the other, and though he couldn't see her face, he could image the frown that would be present on her face. He swallowed, his heart beating hard in his chest. He didn't know if he wanted it to be her. Part of him wanted it desperately, craved it, but he wasn't sure he could handle meeting her again. Not when she was still out of control.

"Rinoa?"

"Ri-no-a," she repeated, still facing away from him. "Rinoa. I know that name. It's my name." The girl slowly turned towards him.

Leon felt his breath catch. It was her, there was no doubt about it in his mind, but she wasn't what he would have expected, she wasn't a fully grown woman. Rather then a woman his own age, she was a young girl. She wasn't an empowered sorceress, but rather the scared girl he'd found in a field of flowers, hiding in the shade of a tree.

But her eyes were empty, blank, they held no recognition of him. He may as well have been a stranger and it hurt. Where was that smile? That spark of life? And most of all, the love? Once she would look at him and he knew she loved him.

Then her eyes widened, she took a step towards him, head tilted to the side. "You're-You're… my storm." A smile spread across her face, growing with every word, and with every word he grew colder. This wasn't the Rinoa he knew. "You're my knight."

The girl in front of him was disturbing. She looked like her, acted like her, hell it was her, but something wasn't there. It was like a photograph; everything was outwardly there, but it was flat, or maybe hollow. What made Rinoa Rinoa wasn't there. Like a phantom in a dream, and not a small part of him withered in disappointment.

Rinoa's demure changed, suddenly she placed her hands on her hips and a frown marred her face, like she used to when she scolded him.

"It's about time you came to get me! I've been waiting here a very long time." Her expression fell, looking lost and hopeless. "It was dark and lonely and I had wanted my knight to come." Her expression suddenly brightened again. "But I made lots of flowers and made it so pretty, but," her lips trembled. "you won't come and see it, come to me and…." She giggled, clapping her hands. "You'd be so proud of me. It was very difficult magic. But you know…." She changed the subject. "You're very naughty for making me wait for so long."

Her voice seemed to change with every statement, swinging from happy and bright to desperate and distraught. His throat tightened; this was a girl who was hanging by a thread. It was wrong. Everything about this was so wrong.

"What are you doing here?" The words were out before he could stop them.

Her hands dropped to her sides, eyes wide and teary and he felt the beginnings of guilt rising up.

"I came to find you," she said, sounding hurt. "You never came. I wondered where you were and why you hadn't come. I wanted to know why you hadn't come to-to-…to…"

He knew what she was going to say next and he couldn't hear it. He cut in, before she could finish her sentence, his eyes unable to leave her. "How did you escape?"

She blinked surprised, startled, "Escape?" Her head tilted to the side again. "I didn't escape. Why would I escape when I have my knight to come for me?" Her voice suddenly became dark, deeper. "But where were you? Where? I even went into your head." Her last words were nearly hissed out, her eyes where so dark and empty, like liquid darkness, bringing back memories that he wanted to keep buried forever. Then she blinked and it was gone. When she spoke it was more like a lost little girl. "Why didn't you come?"

He shook his head. "How did you….How can you be here?"

She hoped closer, giggling. "Oh Squall, you didn't listen, did you?" Rising to the tip of her toes she reached out to touch his cheek. Her fingers brushed over before her hand settled, causing him to stiffen. His hand rose half-way to take hers, but he forced himself to drop it again. If he took her hand now, he may never let go. "I'm not here."

He watched her, the feel of her hand still against his cheek, leaving his skin warm. She certainly felt real, unless this was a very realistic dream, but he couldn't forget that missing spark.

"A copy," he said with realisation, and disappointment ran through him, along with a jolt of relief, it would certainly be a bit easier to walk away if it wasn't really her.

She giggled. "No. I'm not someone else."

This time he didn't stop his hand from reaching up and taking hers. "But you're…" he couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.

Her eyes darkened. "…in prison?"

Leon nodded numbly.

"Yes, I am. Which is why I need my knight to come and free me."

Suddenly it hit him. "She…you're," he corrected himself. "a part of her."

She blinked in confusion, gently drawing her hand away from his, and holding in up in front of her. She looked at it as if it had just given her all the answers to the mysteries of life. "I am, aren't I? I'm not all together."

He looked at her with something akin to horror in his gaze. Splitting oneself, one's soul, was dangerous. When apart for too long, it didn't always want to reunite with the main body, it could be lost, and there were hundreds of other things that could go wrong.

She gave him a level look when he pointed this out. "You didn't give me a choice. I called you, I came to see you, I looked for you, but you never came. But…" she tossed her hair over her shoulder. "If you come back to me now, all will be forgiven."

He couldn't.

Why not?

"You were supposed to come to me, you promised," she whispered, bowing her head, her hands on her temples.

He hadn't found a cure, that's why not. Oh, he'd had ideas, but they were either unless or too dangerous to try. If he returned to her now, everything would just fall down around his head, all the work he had done for his home, his friends.

But he'd be with her, and that's what he really wanted wasn't it? He wanted to be with his sorceress, his wife. Did it really matter how? It was his duty to be by her side, a duty he'd ignored for nearly ten years.

"You never came to res….no….not rescue…"

He couldn't just throw away the woman she had been though, not the woman he had fallen in love with, his true wife and that was who he should be loyal to. Whether he could still think that in front of the real woman, was another question…

"Yes…you never came to…." She trailed off, her eyes going blank. Then after a moment she straightened, hands dropping back to her sides. "I think I have guests."

Leon looked at her in confusion. He glanced over his shoulder; no-one. How could she have….Sora. He had barely noted the boy earlier, but now he wished he'd paid closer attention. Keyblade wielder or not, a sorceress was a dangerous woman to meddle with. Her presence on the world had kept it together after the heartless had invaded when others had fizzled into nothing. She was not a woman to be trifled with, especially when she was under the influence of the darkness.

The girl stepped to the side and ran past him, or she would have if she didn't disappear as she did so, like petals in the wind.

There wasn't anything else he could do; turning, he ran for his friends' lives.

End of Chapter 8

There you go. We'll see real Rinoa next chapter and it shouldn't take too long to update this time. I hope no one was too out of character, but if you think so just tell me what you think is wrong and I'll bare it in mind (and if I can change it).


	9. Flowers Wither, Treasures Stay Hidden

Chapter 9-Flowers Wither, Treasures Stay Hidden

Sora stumbled a few paces as he burst through to the other side of the gateway; it was over a lot quicker than he had expected. He had half-suspected that it would be much like travelling though the darkness with Riku, but instead it was just like stepping though a door; just one step and he was on the other side. He looked up and blinked, rather confused. Sora had expected some sorry, dank, dark cell, holding some poor damsel in distress. So needless to say, he was rather shocked when he was greeted by a large meadow instead. Behind him he heard Riku and Kairi arrive, undoubtedly with the same reaction he had.

Riku was the first to break the silence. "Did we come to the right place?"

"It's beautiful,"Kairi breathed.

Sora couldn't argue with her on that point. Flowers stretched as far as the eye could see, thinning in patches, allowing grass to be seen, while the occasional tree broke the flat horizon. The sky – the fact there was one was another matter that confused the keyblade master – was blue, without a cloud in sight. It was peaceful, so very peaceful.

The sound of heavy footfalls and a soft curse alerted them to Cloud's arrival.

"Time to go," Cloud muttered, clearly annoyed at the three friends' actions.

He was ignored. A breeze picked up, carrying petals and words that Sora couldn't quite make out. He tilted his head, trying to catch the words as they floated by, but he couldn't even catch the gender of the voices. Looking around, he searched for the source. He never found the source, but he found her. His eyes halted on her, and for a moment, he wondered if he had made the right decision. Before him wasn't the perky and absent-minded girl. In front of him was a sorceress.

She was far enough away that their presence had yet to be acknowledged by her, absorbed as she was in her own task rather then her surroundings. She knelt in the flowers, her hand grazing over the tops of them as if considering their worth. When a stray petal, carried on the breeze, caught her attention, she reached out, and as her fingers brushed the lone petal it morphed into a feather.

She looked older, a lot older; closer to Leon's age then his own. Her hair was far longer, reaching down to her waist, despite being held back high on her head; a simple pony tail held by a not so simple hair piece. Her dress looked more suited to Olympia then Radiant Garden, however; it dipped low, very low in fact, with a scoop neckline that extended to just below her belly button. A large tattoo extended for the length, forming a symbol that Sora felt he should know, but embarrassed, he quickly averted his eyes away from her cleavage. Markings, as Sora wasn't sure if they were actually tattoos, also marred her arms and face, standing out against unnaturally pale skin. However, what caught his attention most, what made her so different to the young girl he knew, were the pair of wings she wore. Two large, snow white angel wings, and some small part of his mind vaguely wondered if all sorceresses had wings or if, for some strange reason, this one had felt that this was an important addition to her appearance.

He shook off his daze. So she looked a little different; The Beast didn't exactly look like a harmless puppy, but it didn't mean he was evil. His friends' warnings wormed their way into his mind and he pushed them aside. She was still a prisoner here, and he had promised to help her. Besides, she didn't look dangerous, and he'd already spoken to her several times.

Resolve strengthened, he dashed forward, only to feel himself choked and brought to an abrupt stop. Feeling a tug on his collar, he realised that Cloud had a hold of it, effectively preventing him from running off. "No." The blond's voice was firm. "We're going back."

"Not until I've spoken to her." Sora tried to tug out of the older man's grasp.

"Keep your voice down. We're lucky that she hasn't noticed us yet."

"It doesn't matter if I'm going to talk to her." Sora yanked again against the man's grip, and successfully pulled himself free. He didn't bother keeping his voice down.

Cloud looked as if he was going to scold him again, but instead he paled slightly, his eyes looking past Sora. Both Kairi and Riku's attention also shifted beyond him, and Sora turned back to the sorceress, already knowing what he would see. Sora's blue eyes meet her black eyes and he felt a chill run through him.

"You are not my knight." Her voice was deep and harsh, almost unnaturally so. "Where is my knight?" Her voice and presence began to soften, and Sora found himself being drawn forward. "Why has he left me?" Her eyes softened, almost brown, as she gasped out, "Why has he not come to kill me?"

Sora froze, his world askew from surprise after surprise. Everything seemed to have been turned around since he stepped through the mirror. Her last comment had scared him more then anything the others had said. Her voice had been so soft, heartbroken, allowing Sora a glimpse of the girl he'd meet on the cliff, but soon she was swallowed again by the darkness. Looking up, her eyes were black again, and her voice harsh.

"Where is my knight?" she repeated. "Where is my Squall?"

"He's not here," Cloud replied.

This didn't seem to be what she wanted to hear. The air became heavy and the sky seemed darker as her eyes narrowed, as if reflecting her darkened mood. "Then why are you here?"

Her eyes snapped back to Sora's and he felt compelled to answer. "You asked us to rescue you." He felt a pull towards her and nearly took a step forward. The eye contact was broken when Cloud stepped in front of him.

"You have to stay here, sorceress. You're not well."

She tilted her head, looking curiously at Cloud, the dark air about her never leaving dissipating. "Not… well? Who are you to tell me whether I am well, child."

Before Sora could peek round, the blond man was flung forcefully back into him, knocking both men to the ground. Sora felt the wind knocked out of him and he painfully connected with the ground. He heard Riku call his name. Trapped under Cloud's weight, he groaned.

"Are you guys OK?" Riku's face came from nearby as Kairi's face hovered into view above him.

"Sorry," Cloud muttered, moving off the boy. Sora groaned again as he moved onto his knees. He'd learnt one thing today that he could have lived without ever knowing; Cloud was a lot heavier then he looked.

Looking up he saw the Sorceress rise to her feet in one fluid movement, her wings flexing as she reached her full height. Riku's keyblade appeared in his hand.

The woman's eyes shifted to the weapon. "A keyblade wielder."

"He's not the only one," Sora announced loudly, rising to his feet, resisting the urge to groan as he did so. He stretched out his arm, willing his own blade to his hand. Kairi was quickly by his side, her own keyblade in her hand.

"What a bother," the sorceress stated, not sounding in the least bit bothered. "Do you intend to prevent me from leaving?" She took a step towards them, the air around her seeming to hum with magic.

"I think," Kairi said. "We might have made a mistake."

Sora couldn't argue, shifting so he was ready to move, watching as the air started to crackle with magic. Their opponent took another couple of steps before halting, and swung an arm towards them. The magic disappeared from the air and for a second nothing happened. Then, appearing from thin air, something shot towards him. He didn't wait to get a better look at what was aimed at him as he threw himself back to the ground. He may not know what it was, but he'd bet his life that he didn't want to be hit by it.

He felt the rush of magic shoot over his head. Glancing round, he saw that everyone else had followed his example. Rolling onto his back, he flipped himself onto his feet, only to duck immediately as the missile shot back towards him. He watched as the ball of dark energy narrowly missed a second ball and curved round to come back at him. Now that was just cheating.

"I'll take it." It was Cloud's voice.

Sora glanced over at him before turning his attention back to the rather more demanding missile. "How?"

Cloud didn't answer; instead he ran towards the projectile, blade in tow. As they came toward each other, Cloud swung his blade, using the flat to bat the ball away. Sure enough, when it came round again, it headed straight for Cloud.

"Kairi and I will deal with these."

Kairi nodded, easily dodging her own ball. Sora relaxed seeing how easily she seemed to be dealing as she started moving away with Cloud.

"Sora! Watch out!" Riku's cry was shortly accompanied by his body barging into Sora's, knocking them both to the ground, sending petals flying about them, narrowly missing a Firaga spell. As he lay there for what seemed like the hundredth time that day, the smell of burnt petals assaulting his senses, he decided that he was really beginning to hate flowers. In one swift movement, both boys were back on their feet.

Riku eyed the woman warily. "Together?"

Sora nodded. "Together," and they launched forward.

A Blizzaga shot their way, which Sora easily dodged, as well as the Firaga that followed. Within a couple of feet of his opponent, he pushed himself off the ground, attacking from above as Riku dealt a low attack. Instead of his keyblade meeting the sorceress, however, it bounced off an invisible barrier. The sorceress lazily watched the two keyblade wielders. He struck again, and again it harmlessly bounced away. His weapon was deflected one more time by the barrier before he dropped to the ground, and jumped back a couple of paces.

"Looks like it'll be harder then we thought," Riku commented as he came up besides his friend. "We should attack from both sides."

"I'll take the back. Ready?"

Riku nodded, and again the two friends charged forward, Sora circling round. Riku leapt to strike, and cried out in surprise. Sora looked round in time to see his friend jerked painfully to the ground, meeting it with a painful thud. Another cry escaped his friend, and he called out to him.

"I'm fine Sora, just keep moving."

"What-"

"Just keep moving!" Riku snapped back.

Sora frowned in puzzlement, moving towards Riku. His alarm grew when he noticed vines creeping tightly up his friend's legs, keeping him anchored to the ground. Something brushed against his own leg and he quickly jumped back.

"Just go Sora!"

"But-" he was unwilling to leave his friend to the mercy of, of all things, the plants.

"I'll be fine, just keep moving. You have other things other things to worry about."

Sora nodded. He felt the creeping of the vine against his skin and jumped, half in surprise, and half to shake off the vine better. This time it wouldn't be shaken so easily and he felt the plant tighten against his shin, and with no slack left, Sora jerked to a halt. Unlike Riku, Sora didn't simply fall to the ground, he was yanked backwards and the vine relaxed, dropping away from him and sending him flying backwards.

Now this was a familiar feeling, he thought; after all, you don't save the universe from falling into darkness without being sent flying a few times. Twisting round, he managed to shift himself to place his feet on the ground ahead of him. He slowed as he ploughed through the flowers, sending petal flying in a hurricane of colour.

He steadied himself with a hand before tensing, preparing to strike again, raising his head to look at the woman, who still watched them with a detached interest. She wasn't interested in them; they were merely means to an end. Sora and his friends had stumbled upon her when she was on her greater mission, and she had decided to use them. Sora felt the sting of anger. He messed up this time, but he wouldn't do it again.

"Why are you attacking me?" The sorceress' voice floated over to them. "Didn't you come to rescue me?"

"I guess he's just seen sense." A familiar voice rang out behind Sora.

Sora wiped round to see Quistis standing ready with Irvine beside her. Her face was thrown into a sudden flash of darkness. Guessing what it was, the boy looked round for Kairi, calling for her to help Riku.

"Quistis, Irvine," the sorceress' voice drawled out, drawing his attention back to her. "Friends; you'll let me go."

"Sorry Rin; you know we can't do that," Irvine said, his voice serious.

"You…" The sorceress took a step towards them. "You…" The air seemed to shake with anger. "You keep me here…" The air sizzled with magic, making the hair on Sora's neck stand on end, "You keep me here in this prison…" He could feel the magic gathering, bending to her will. Whatever she was about to cast it was big and it was dangerous. The same thoughts seemed to run through Irvine and Quistis' heads.

"Heeeeey, Rinny, you really don't want to be doing that," Irvine said.

She looked at him. "Really? I think I do."

He needed to stop her, distract her. Keyblade at the ready he struck out one more time. Leaping up, he swung his weapon above his head for a downwards strike. She raised her hand and he felt panic flash through him; she was going to attack. Instead, her hand met the Keyblade – or, perhaps to be more accurate, it met the barrier between them.

"What th-!?" Sora remained suspended in midair, keyblade seeming fixed to the barrier. The Sorceress hadn't even spared him a glance, and her magic barely wavered. She clutched her hand and he felt it though his keyblade. Drawing her hand to the side and his keyblade followed, jerking his body with it.

He heard Kairi's voice call to him, telling him to let go as he helplessly dangled there.

"I will break free," the sorceress muttered.

Her hand clutched tighter, and for a moment, he worried that she was going to throw him away like a rag-doll. That was until the keyblade started to warm till it itched his hands, and then continued to heat so that it was uncomfortable under his gloves, burning his exposed fingers.

"RINOA! That's enough!"

The magic disappeared, the heat leaving his keyblade, and he slide to the ground by her feet.

"Squall; my knight," she breathed, her manner softer. "You came."

Squall? He looked up in surprise. He knew that voice. Before the sorceress; before Rinoa, stood Leon, his gunblade resting on one shoulder. Sora stared mutely at the older man and the man's pendant caught Sora's eyes. They widened and he wondered how he could have been so stupid. Of course the symbol on Rinoa's chest was familiar, he'd seen it hundreds of times. It was the one that Leon always wore.

End of Chapter 9

Sorry guys, I know I suck at action scenes, but I hope at least it wasn't cringe worthy. Writing magic into fights can be tricky, half the time it just seemed to come out like some bad B-rate movie. Anyway, if you've got critique on it, then you're more the welcome to give it. I probably need all the help I can get. :)


	10. Until I See the First Star of Fall

**Chapter 10-Unitl I See the First Star of Fall**

"Squall, my knight." There was a small thrill in the Sorceress's voice. "You came."

Sora gazed between the two adults. Leon? Leon was her knight? But she called him by a different name, Squall, and judging from the look on the man's face, Leon was who she claimed he was. Everything clicked into place; lions, storms, and even the flowers.

"I'm here, Rinoa." Leon shifted his gunblade on his shoulder. "Now let them go."

Rinoa ignored his request."You came, like you said you would."

She moved past Sora, who sat forgotten amongst the flowers. Leon muttered something, too low for Sora to hear, but Quistis and Irvine nodded, slowly moving away from Leon, each taking a different direction to circle round the sorceress.

"Sora, are you alright?" Kairi's voice came from his side, indicating her arrival.

"Yeah," he replied, eyes still rooted on the pair, watching as Rinoa stopped halfway between himself and Leon.

"Sora?" Kairi's hand came to rest on his arm, and he shook himself out his trance, turning to Kairi. She looked relieved when he looked at her and smiled, throwing in an, 'I'm fine', for good measure. Kairi's soft smile was his reward. Beside him, Cloud shifted. Sora wasn't the only one paying attention to the lovers' conversation.

Cloud shifted uncomfortably as the confrontation between the sorceress and her knight continued; he just knew that he wouldn't want to be here as they talked.

Rinoa's voice drifted over to them. "You'll take me away."

"Rinoa, you need to stay here." As Leon spoke, Cloud heard a small whispered 'hey' by his side. Looking to his side he saw Irvine crouched beside him. Glad of the chance to take his attention away from the lovers, he focused on the cowboy's words instead.

"Quistis is helping out their friend," and he nodded to Sora and Kairi, who didn't seem to have noticed Irvine's arrival; the centre of their attention was still the two lovers. "When they get here, we'll get the hell outta here."

"What about Leon?"

"He'll distract her." Irvine smile at him. "Leon'll be fine."

Cloud looked uncertainly back at the couple, his previous conversation with Leon returning to him. Leon's doubts, the promise he'd managed to extract from Cloud. The blond trusted Leon with his life – he'd fought beside him last year – but this was different. This wasn't a matter of physical strength, it was mental and emotional. Cloud knew all about inner demons and darkness. After all, he had his own walking, talking, killing 'inner' demon called Sephiroth. His, like Leon's, had physical shape, but unlike Leon's, his wasn't his lover.

"Leon is the safest one here," Irvine reassured him, though he didn't seem that comforted by the idea. "He just needs to occupy her till we can leave."

"You're not yourself, Rinoa." Leon's voice cut through the air to him.

The sorceress laughed. "Not myself? Then who am I?"

Leon's jaw tightened and Cloud looked round, wondering how long Quistis was going to take. How long could it take to get one boy anyway?

"You're not my Rinoa."

"Not your Rinoa?" She sounded amused. "Shall we see what 'Your Rinoa' thinks."

Oh, dear. Cloud really did not like the sound of that. This could not be going anywhere good.

The woman suddenly fell to her knees, a small gasp escaping her lips. Her breaths were emerging more like sobs than anything else.

"Squall?" The name came out in a small moan, a soft, almost pitiful contrast to her previous harshness. Cloud was sure that, if he could see her face, the change would be reflected there as well.

"Rinoa?" There was a more hopeful undercurrent to that simple word then Cloud had ever heard from the older man. As Leon took several steps forward, Cloud's discomfort increased, feeling like an intruder in a private moment. As if he'd walked in on lovers in the heat of the moment.

"Squall, please." She looked up at Leon, her voice becoming pleading. He had no idea what was coming, but he just knew that he didn't want to be here. "Please, kill me."

Leon froze in place, taking on roughly the same pallor as a corpse. All Cloud could do was stop his internal squirming from showing, thinking about how disappearing would be a great option now. This, or something very similar, was what he had wanted to avoid hearing.

"Ready to go." Quistis's voice came from just behind him. If Cloud was a hugging person, Quistis wouldn't be able to breathe now. Looking back at the woman, he tried to distance himself from the scene, wondering how she managed to stay so composed. He didn't what to be hearing Rinoa ask her husband to kill her again, or see Leon look so utterly helpless. He nodded to Quistis.

Turning, with a quick flick of her hand, Quistis opened the doorway back to the guard room.

From the corner of his eye, Cloud saw the sorceress stiffen, the distressed atmosphere draining away. In a steady movement, she rose to her feet and turned towards them. Cloud stood, one hand once again on his sword handle.

"How kind of you to open the door," she began. "But it's not very nice to leave too soon."

She took a step between towards them, and suddenly Leon was there. Standing between his friends and his wife; blocking Rinoa's path.

"Go," he commanded. When they hesitated, he barked, "Now!"

Cloud looked down to the teenagers at his feet; Sora was still gawking at the sorceress's earlier words, his eyes still wide, while Kairi at least had the decency to control herself a little more. He took a handful of the back of the boy's shirt, pulling him to his feet. "You two go first."

This seemed to snap the boy out of it. "But-"

Quistis interrupted him. "Riku's injured his ankle, so I need you two to take him back first." Sure enough Riku was leaning heavily against the older woman, his right foot brushing the tips of the grass. "We'll be right behind you."

"Trust us," Irvine added, giving them a little push in the right direction. "We don't wanna stick around."

"Squall," the sorceress sighed. "You'll let them get away."

Sora took one of his friend's arms. "You'll be right behind us?" Kairi imitated his action, taking Riku's other side.

"Irvine will be right behind you."

As if to prove her point, Irvine stepped forward, right behind the youths. Taking the hint, they disappeared through the doorway.

Irvine glanced at Quistis. "See ya in a minute – just don't forget Romeo over there," and he too disappeared.

Quistis turned to Cloud, but he cut her off. "I'll get Leon. You go first; I've got the closing key anyway."

"They're almost gone. You're not being a very good knight. You're supposed to listen to what I say."

Perhaps it was because she didn't have time to argue, but reluctantly, she agreed. "Just make sure he goes first or you're holding onto him."

Cloud didn't wait to see her leave, turning to the last remaining person that they wanted to pass through. Leon was backing away from his wife, towards Cloud, but his action seemed more automatic then a conscious action.

"Did you hear that, Leon?" His call received no answer, just the continuation of a slowly retreating back. "Leon, hurry up."

It was Rinoa who spoke instead, but not to him. "You'll stay, won't you Squall? My loyal knight. Stay and all is forgiven."

Cloud stepped forward and to the side, allowing him to see Leon's face. The man's entire attention was on the woman in front of him, but unlike before, his expression had weakened, more uncertain then ever, pushing Cloud to new measures. "Squall!"

He wasn't sure if it was his voice, the use of his real name, or perhaps the slight hint of panic that ran in his voice, but Leon blinked, and looked sideways at him.

Relaxing ever-so-slightly Cloud continued. "We need to go."

Leon nodded, and made to turn back.

He wasn't sure how it had happened, maybe he blinked, but mid-turn Rinoa had moved to her husband, white wings spread wide, feet not quite touching the ground. She smiled, and, placing her hand on the other man's cheek, turned his face to look up at her. Leon's eyes widened, locking with the woman's, his gunblade dangling forgotten in his hand.

"Squall," she whispered.

"Leon!" Cloud called again, but there wasn't even a flicker of recognition in the older man's eyes, "Leon! Squall!" It was useless; the man was oblivious to everything but the woman in front of him. He pushed down the increasing frustration growing from his panic. He took a step forward, ready to grab the man and physically drag him back if need be. "Leon, this is not the time to get reacquainted with your wife."

His arm was extended half way to his friend, when the sorceress raised her arm up, her gaze never leaving Leon's. As if on signal, Cloud stopped, his eyes trained on the arm, but before he had a chance to act further, she made her move. He had barely registered the flick of her wrist when something hit him square in the chest. The force of the blow sent him flying backwards, not only across the meadow, but also through the gateway.

This was bad. The gate closed around him as he went through, locking him out and Leon in. He flew out the other side and across the room. The room blurred past – that was, until he hit the wall. He felt the air rush out of him as his back painfully smacked against the wall, but not half as painfully as when the back of his head followed suit. His legs crumbled under him as he slid down the wall, taking deep breaths as he failed to right his world before it went black.

(&)

Leon's eyes were locked with hers, filling his head, chasing away all other thoughts.

"Squall." The voice was deeper then he remembered, but it was hers, and it seemed to drag him deeper under. He could ignore the unnatural aura surrounding them if he just kept looking into her eyes. As they moved towards him, they seemed to swallow him whole, making the world fall away. He was unaware that anything else existed, until soft lips brushed against his. The gunblade fell, unnoticed, from his grasp and he reached up to cradle her head, deepening the kiss. He felt her smile and the kiss grew more passionate until he had no breath left and his mind spun.

He broke the kiss, taking great gulps of air. Even after his world stopped spinning, he continued breathing heavily. Something was wrong, very wrong. He was taking vast gulps of air, and yet none of it seemed to reach his lungs. His weak legs gave way under him, sending him crashing to his knees. Something else seemed to reach his lungs instead, and it didn't stop there. It spread through his body, hungry to consume him.

He saw Rinoa's feet by his side and he looked up, realising what was happening. She smiled patiently back.

"I can't have my knight ignoring my wishes, now can I?"

He didn't know how she'd done it, but she may have, quite literally, given him the kiss of death.

**End of Chapter 10**

Only a few more chapters left, and all of them are now written and waiting to be typed up. I was hoping I'd be done before I went back home, but it looks like it's not to be. Never mind.

Yes, I have given my chapters titles now. It was bugging me, but as I suck at this kinda thing I'm just borrowing the lyrics to the title song. Some of them fit surprising well (especially considering I didn't even bother trying to match them up).


	11. I fall asleep and see it all

**Chapter 11- 'I fall asleep and see it all'**

"What in bloody hell 'ave ya bin doing to the computer?"

Cloud winced as Cid's shout of outrage rang around the room and, consequently, his head. He pressed the ice pack harder to the back of his head where it had connected nastily with the wall. Cold water dribbled down his back from the melting ice.

Though Aerith had healed the bruising on his back, little could be done about the 'knock' to his head. Aerith had shaken her head, telling him that, apparently, it was common knowledge that you never use healing magic on a head wound (too close to the brain, resulting in nasty consequences if something went wrong, and sometimes when it didn't for that matter). Instead an ice pack was shoved his way in a rather unfairly 'deal with it' fashion, before she went off to see to Sora's burnt hand.

He would have been thankful that his head was so hard. That was, if it didn't seem to be in the process of trying to explode. Cid's shout had not helped on that count.

So here he sat, ice pressed against the bump, making his hand numb with the cold, while it slowly melted. Half of his hair was now plastered flat against him rather than in its usually spiky manner and, combined with his sour expression, he imagined his appearance resembled a rather disgruntled wet cat.

"Hey." The defensive cry came from Irvine. "You try maintaining a computer on a world that's trying to fall apart while crawling with creatures that want to rip your heart out."

Cid didn't bother looking up from the computer. "I'd do a damn sight betta then this."

"Enough you two!" Quistis cut in. "That's not why I called everyone here." She looked around the room at the gathered crowd. Tifa hovering over Cloud, Cid trying to control the computer, Aerith seeing to Riku while his friends watched, and all the while Yuffie paced in the background, biting her little fingernail. "We have a big problem."

Sora stuck up his hand up into the air, as if he was back in a classroom. "I have a question." He'd been unusually silent up until now. He had no doubt the boy had been on the receiving end of a lecture from the ex-teacher. "What is going on?"

Quistis shared a look with Irvine, as if debating if, and how much, should be said. Cid's gruff voice interceded on the kid's behalf.

"May as well tell him; not as if he ain't waist deep in with the rest of us now."

Quistis crossed her arms, taking a step towards them. "The woman you have just met is Sorceress Rinoa, Sorceress of Radiant Garden."

"Since when has Radiant Garden had a sorceress? I've never heard of it."

Quistis frowned at Sora's interruption, giving Cloud the impression that she was resisting the urge to point out that there was a hell of a lot that Sora didn't know about Radiant Garden.

"Radiant Garden has always had a sorceress. She protects the world from the darkness and other such dangers. She is what makes our world strong and she's the reason our world didn't disappear into the darkness like every other world."

This time Riku spoke up. "If she was supposed to protect this world, then why did it fall and how did she become… like that?"

"An 'accident' masterminded by Malificent." Quistis' voice and expression darkened at the name. "Despite her best efforts to take this world, Rinoa's power easily held off the heartless. So she laid a trap, and Rinoa was infected with darkness, which eventually turned her. We sealed her away while we tried to find a cure for her. "

"So what happened?"

"The end of the world," Irvine put in. "It put a bit of a dampener on research."

Quistis continued with her explanation. "With Rinoa sealed away, the heartless could move in."

Cloud shifted the ice pack on his head. If truth be told, he was almost as interested in what Quistis had to say as the children. His own memories of those important events over the last few years of the world were sketchy, and what he did know was limited to that of a child's knowledge. Quistis and Irvine had in-depth personal knowledge of those events. However, he doubted that they'd be told any more than the general gist of the events. Thinking back to the meadow, Cloud decided that that would be better all round. He already knew more then he had right, or desire, to know.

"She's been talking about her knight a lot." It was Kairi's turn to speak.

Sora sat straighter. "Yeah, and she called Leon by a different name."

"Squall?" Yuffie stopped biting her nail long enough to add to the conversation. Sora nodded and she continued, "That's Leon's real name. He's been really stupid about it for years. He refuses to be called anything but Leon."

"Why'd he change it?"

"It's a very long story," Quistis cut in.

Taking the hint, Kairi got back to her original question. "So Leon is her knight?"

Quistis nodded. "Every Sorceress of Radiant Garden has a knight. It's the knight's task to protect and look after their sorceress. They follow her and put her above everything else, staying by her side until either one of the partnership dies. It's a lifetime commitment that becomes who you are. "

"Sounds like a marriage."

"You're not far off," Irvine replied but it was Quistis who continued.

"It's why, traditionally, the knight is someone very close to the sorceress – not necessarily a lover, but a family member or a close friend. Over time, it became common for an older member of the family or friend to take the role, and then it shifted to any older person connected to the family. For the last hundred years, or so, the role has been taken by any strong candidate; a strong, _experienced _fighter. It wasn't unusual for the ministry to use the knight as their way to influence the sorceress. Rinoa bucked the trend and choose her lover, Leon, or Squall as he was then, despite the fact that they were both only seventeen."

"It sounds romantic," Kairi sighed out.

"Unfortunately, most of the ministers would have disagreed with you – not everyone, but some were more vocal then others."

Cid chuckled. "Yeah, what was it that Genesis said, that grumpy bastard was convinced he was set for being the knight. Ah yeah, something about picking an inexperienced kid just so she could have a good f-"

"Anyway," Quistis interrupted, getting the matter back on track. "What matters is that Rinoa choose Leon, turned and then had to be sealed away. However, we have a more pressing matter – the mirror hasn't completely sealed itself."

It took a second for Quistis' words to sink in; it seemed to take everyone else a moment as well. The room went tense.

Yuffie broke the silence. "It's what?"

"Not completely shut," Quistis repeated, not looking at all concerned about the matter. "The magic that hit Cloud came through with him and jammed the doorway open."

While the others looked at Quistis in a rather startled manner, Cloud frowned. He wasn't sure how long he'd blacked out for, but for the others to have been called and have arrived, it must have been at least twenty minutes. Surely that was enough time for Rinoa to make her way out.

Cloud let his hand drop away, removing the ice pack from the back of his head. "Why hasn't she escaped?"

"She can't; ain't open enough," Irvine answered. "Just like a jammed door; she can't open or close it anymore then it already is."

"But she got out before," Sora jumped in. "Even when it was locked. We saw her on Destiny Islands, and you were chasing her in the castle."

Irvine looked back to Quistis. "You know more about magic then me."

"This is sorcery," she corrected, but took up the subject anyway. "It wasn't her, not completely anyway. It's a tricky piece of sorcery; you take a piece of your soul, separate it from the main body, giving it a task or purpose, and then send it out. It's not really you, or even a real person – just a reflection, so it can merge with the mirror and emerge on the other side.

"Once on this side, the soul fragment can take on a form and move freely. However, aside from it being dangerous, it has drawbacks. Being only a fragment, it only has a fragment of the original's power and memories. Also, it tends to be rather single-minded.

"However, I believe the only other option for Rinoa would be to go through the dreamscape. Being on another plane means she could leave without the worry of barriers. However, she would only be able to move through dreams, which means she can't escape to the real world from there. All she could do would be to talk to the owner of the dream."

Again, Cloud was reminded of his earlier conversation with Leon. 'She's been in my dreams'. If he was honest, he hadn't taken the man's comment to heart, putting his words more down to jumpiness then anything else. Looks like Leon had been spot on.

"Damn you two." It was Cid's exasperated voice again. "Not even the date is right on this thing!" It looked like the man had turned back to the computer when it had become known that they weren't in any immediate danger.

"It was fine this morning," Irvine retorted. "Maybe it's all your fiddling around."

Stepping up to stop the argument progressing, Tifa spoke. "If it's jammed, then we don't have a problem, right?"

Irvine turned back to them. "Stick a crossbar in a jammed door and ya can get out. 'Cause you may just end up breaking the door as you do so."

"So she can force her way out?"

"Bingo."

Cid growled, "Now the bloody thing has disappeared completely."

Irvine looked back over his shoulder, "What _are_ you trying to do anyway?"

Cid actually looked up from the computer to frown at the cowboy, and opened his mouth. They never found out what Cid was trying to do.

A shrill peal of laughter cut through the air. Cloud was on his feet with the others, though his head wound slightly objected, dropping the ice pack in favour of his sword handle. His eyes scanned the room as the laughter decreased to chuckles, before they faded completely back into nothingness. The eyes of the group raked the tense room, all looking for the source.

Sora voiced the question on everyone's lips. "What was that?"

(&)

Leon slowly came to his senses, and it took him a moment to realise that he wasn't dead. He was sure he wouldn't feel this much if he had died, or, if he had, that it would be more pleasant. There was a dull ache throughout his whole body to complement the heavy feeling. He was also breathing, so – definitely alive.

As his mind struggled its way to consciousness, it tried to work out why he was so surprised by this fact. He shouldn't be breathing, he realised, feeling something against his face – but he most definitely was.

As he came to the surface of awareness, the aching grew more painful; his only comfort was the gentle touch on his face. Cool fingers stroked the side of his face, every now and then ceasing their task to trace his features, focusing on his scar. He kept his eyes closed, focusing on the comforting caress of the digits, trying to let everything else fall away, absorbed completely till not even the fogginess of his mind disturbed him.

They brushed over his lashes, causing his eyes to flutter open. The hand dropped away from his face as he focused on the image above him; his wife. She smiled down at him, but it didn't seem right. His memories slowly returned to him. This wasn't his wife; his wife wouldn't poison his body. She was being manipulated by the darkness residing deep inside of her.

Her hand rose again to continue their previous task. No, this wasn't Rinoa. He caught the hand before it fell on his face again. "Don't," he muttered, surprised at how weak his own voice was.

Her eyes flashed dangerously, she withdrew her hand and the dull pain flared inside of him, stealing what little breath he had left. Screwing his eyes shut he tried to push it away.

"That," she said. "Wasn't very nice."

He dropped her hand and the pain faded, leaving him breathing heavily. He wondered, if this was what Rinoa had gone through all those years ago when fighting the darkness.

"Rinoa," he managed to wheeze out. "What have you done to me."

"Just making sure my knight knows he's been very naughty."

"Rinoa," he gasped out her name, hoping that it would reach her. "You're killing me."

He sensed her hesitate. "Don't be silly. I wouldn't kill my knight," she purred.

He groaned; she didn't know how powerful she was. She'd never known, a dangerous flaw in a sorceress, and now it was going to kill him.

"Rinoa, you are. My body isn't as strong against this as yours is." He opened his eyes and looked up into her face. "You'll kill me."

She wavered, her black eyes lightening, softening, and he felt a rush of hope. His Rinoa was still in there, he just needed to….

"Rinoa." Every time he said her name, he could have sworn he could see a bit more of her return. If he could just reach that. "Rinoa, come back to me."

A distinct brown shone through and he felt a thrill of hope as he looked at Rinoa, and then it was gone again, snapped away by the black.

"I am here," she replied, her voice deep with a hint of warning.

He closed his eyes against his failed attempt. He'd messed up as a knight, over, and over, and over again. "I'm sorry."

"Oh Squall," she sighed, and he felt her hair brush against his face, her body pressed against his as she leaned down to speak in his ear. "It doesn't matter," she whispered. "None of it. You're here with me now and that's all that matters."

No, it wasn't, there were other things that mattered as well, but as her lips brushed over his cheek the reasons slipped away. Then, as her lips found his, nothing else really did seem to matter. Here was Rinoa, so here was his purpose. Here, was where he belonged.

So why did this feel so wrong?

(&)

"What was that?" Sora's keyblade was already in his hand, standing ready to protect his injured friend.

"Her way out." Everyone turned to Quistis when she uttered these words.

Cloud was relieved that he wasn't the only one who seemed to be thinking that Quistis may as well have said 'purple monkey dishwasher,' for all the sense it made. She wasn't looking at them, though; her attention was fixed on the computer, nudging Cid to the side. Irvine had moved to stand beside her, looking over her shoulder.

"Toki no mahou then," he said.

The woman nodded and straightened. "Toki no mahou."

Yuffie had once eaten half a dozen sugar mice in an afternoon. She had then spent the rest of the day bouncing off the walls – not quite literally – while spewing out a series of words that necessarily have any relation to one another, and most of which he was certain didn't even exist outside the world that was Yuffie's head. Yet, she had made more sense then these two currently were.

"Toku nou…? What the heck are you two talking about?" Cid's gruff voice asked.

"Toki no mahou," Quistis corrected. "Time Magic; it's how she's planning to escape." She turned back to the room glancing back once, at the computer. "She can't force her way out, but now, with the door ajar, she can send magic through. She's manipulating time and space around us, bending the boundaries of her prison so she can slip through. That's why the date has disappeared, it's not the same time as it was a minute ago."

"So, she's turning back time?" Sora's keyblade vanished.

"No." Quistis' reply was firm. "You can't just turn back or forward time like a video. What she's doing is bending the boundaries. It's more like she's squeezing and pushing time, like squeezing a foam ball soaked in water. She and Leon are the water, and the ball is the castle and its time-space. By squeezing the ball she's altering its shape and pushing her way out, and once she lets go the ball will pop back into shape. What we just saw was probably an echo from another time as it clashed with the present, but I've only seen this in theory books, so I'm not sure how it will work. I suspect that as we get closer to the source – Rinoa – they'll become clearer."

Cloud didn't miss her mention of castle, rather then room. "What do you mean castle?"

"I think the spell will cover the whole castle."

"Wouldn't that take more magic?" Riku inquired from his seat.

"Maybe a little," Quistis admitted. "But it's a lot easier. The castle building has a very defined and distinctive boundary. Rooms have smaller ones and there are many within the larger boundaries of the castle. So it's easier to encompass the whole castle, rather then shift around to find this room." She thought for a second. "So it's easier to squeeze water from the while ball rather then cut the ball up to find where the water is and then squeeze the water from there."

As she finished the computer bleeped, and then it started screeching. At once Cid, Quistis and Irvine's attention were back on the machine. The only explanation was Irvine's, "Shit! That was quick."

Cloud was about to ask what was quick, when the room flashed red, the lights shifting to the warning colour and then back again before repeating the process.

"Lock-down! Lock-down!" A flat mechanical voice rang out from a hidden speaker and before anyone had a chance to react, the door slammed shut behind them. Sora leapt over the couch and was by the door in a matter of seconds.

"It's locked," he said, and thumped his fist against the door for good measure, as if it would suddenly burst open because some kid was whacking it.

"Yeah." It was Irvine, sounding rather causal considering the circumstances. "It's an automatic reaction for the castle to go into lockdown if Rinoa ever escapes."

Cloud wondered if this day could get any worse.

Sora halted his abuse of the door to spin round, his eyes dashing round the room. "She's not here."

Quistis frowned, also looking round the room. "No, she isn't, which means she's emerged somewhere else in the castle," leaving the rather pressing matter of where.

Quistis rubbed her temples, her eyes drifting closed, showing the strain for the first time since the affair had started. "I think they'll appear somewhere close to her heart, but it can't be the meadow; it's outside the boundaries."

"The bedroom?" Irvine suggested.

Quistis opened her eyes to frown at him. "Some of us have deeper relationships then that."

Irvine held up his hands defensively. "Hey, I have deep relationships… or I did. I just find that the bedroom plays an important role in them, and it has a lot of good memories. "

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Irvine."

"The ballroom." Aerith's soft voice drifted across the room. "It'll be the ballroom."

The cowboy and teacher shared a look of realisation. Quistis nodded, while Irvine muttered 'Of course'. He then groaned. "It just had to be the one room at the top of the castle."

"If we're locked in here," Tifa began. "Then how do we get up there?"

"Never mind that; what about Leon?" Everyone turned to Yuffie. "We can't just abandon him."

"He'll be with Rinoa," Quistis assured her. "That I can guarantee you. You don't need to worry about him; he's the safest one out of the lot of us."

She turned her head, looking at Irvine and hiding the look the two old friends shared from the ninja. Cloud didn't miss the meaning in the look, and it made his stomach clench with nerves. Leon would definitely be with Rinoa, but on whose side would he be on?

Yuffie didn't look convinced by her words.

Cloud turned to Quistis. "Is every door locked?"

"No, just the important ones; ones by staircases and in other strategic positions, we'll have to override them manually."

"How do we do that?"

"There will be a panel that will allow you to do it. It's on the other side for this door, the others you'll have to override on both sides."

"How do we get out then?" Yuffie had returned to chewing her little nail.

Cid grinned. "Got ya solution." He walked a few paces to the right of the computer, and then looked up at a grid near the ceiling. "Bin ten years, so one good hit should do it. Yuffie?"

The girl looked puzzled for a second before a wide grin spread over her face. One well aimed Shuriken later and the cover was nearly popping from its screws. Tifa stepped, or leapt, in, tearing it from where it hung from the wall. Not for the first time, Cloud marvelled at how much stronger Tifa was then she looked.

"Air vents?" Sora looked up.

"More or less. They cover the whole building."

Irvine looked uncertainly at the solution. "I dunno 'bout you Cid, but I can't fit in there."

He was right, and Cloud doubted that he would be able to either. It wasn't a large passageway and there was no way in hell that his buster sword would go in as well. It was an occupational hazard of being a broadswords-man whose blade was almost as wide as himself. He was the first to admit that it wasn't the most practical of weapons.

"Nah, but I can see several of us who can."

The adults turned to the youngest members of the room. Aerith spoke up.

"Riku should stay here. I've sped up the healing, but it needs to heal on it needs own now."

Quistis nodded. "Then stay-"

Aerith cut her off by shaking her head. "I'm coming with you." She fixed the blonde with a determined look, her gaze steady. Cloud knew that look and it usually meant that she got what she wanted.

"I'll stay with him." Cid volunteered. "I'm better with computers anyway."

"Fine then," Quistis conceded. "I have a feeling we'll need a healer before all this is finished. That leaves Sora, Kairi and Yuffie to do this…. If you're willing that is."

Each youth nodded, and there was a small tug at Cloud's lips; as if they'd say anything else.

She stepped up beside Cid and indicated that the three should come over to her.

"Open the door from the other side, then head left in the vents till you hit the West Stairs. We'll go up that way. Make your way up, opening the doors as you go, we'll follow along the path you'll open up for us. We'll meet at the top in the ballroom's entrance hall." Quistis reached into one of her pockets. "There should be a panel either side of each door, it should have a small Radiant Garden symbol in the corner." She withdrew a card from her pocket. "Push on the panel and it will open, then insert this card and type in the code 41269, and do the same on the other side. The door should then open. Remember, the code is 41269. 41269."

She made each of the teenagers repeat the password several times before she nodded approvingly. "Good luck."

The trio nodded. Tifa interlocked her fingers, cupping her hands in order to give them a leg-up. It wasn't long until the three had disappeared into the vents.

"Now we wait." Irvine slouched against the computer, earning himself a glare from Cid. "Hope they'll be OK."

"They will be," Cloud answered, believing every word. "They don't lose easily."

"Maybe," Quistis said. "but there are some things that weapons can't fight. Not all the echoes will laugh; some will scream."

**End of Chapter 11**

And that was Quistis' tutorial on info dumping. Yeah, sorry about that, hope you weren't too annoyed by it. The next chapter will hopefully make up for it, I had a lot of fun with that one :D Oh, and on a random note, this is now my longest fanfic :D

Also, I don't normally put random Japanese into chapters, in fact it's one of my pet hates, but in order for that part to work, I realised that it had to be in a different language, and Japanese seemed most appropriate (that and I don't know any Latin). Think of it as referring to a species by its Latin name, it's the only way I can justify it.

Btw, if you know what the code for the card is, then you know whose card it is.


	12. Dream bound for life

**A/N: ****Quick important note; anything in italics is said by an echo. **Normally I wouldn't bother with such an obvious note, as it's my job to make it obvious, but I thought I may as well.

**Chapter 12- Dream bound for life**

Kairi landed heavily in the corridor, already revelling in the space it offered. Straightening, she stretched out and shook her legs. She felt sorry for Sora. They'd decided that the two girls should open the door from either side, while Sora remained in the ducts. This wasn't simply to torment Sora, oh no; they had a plan.

Yuffie was a ninja, which meant that jumping down, unlocking doors and getting back up quickly was right up her alley. To avoid clambering over the other two to reach the other side, Yuffie would throw the card to Sora, who passed it to Kairi. While Yuffie climbed back up Kairi would unlock the door.

This did mean that Sora was stuck in the duct till they reached the top. She did feel sorry for him. Unfortunately for him, though, he was the strongest in the trio and she was the lightest, making her the easiest to help back up into the vents.

Something rustled behind her. She spun round to end up face to face with an empty corridor. Taking a deep breath, she tried to relax. This had happened several times already on this floor. They'd been forced to take a detour away from the stairs due to the fact that the main staircase between the second and third floor was too broken to climb. It hadn't bothered her at the time, but since making their way across to another staircase she'd been hearing noises. A creak here, the slam of a door there, she even thought she could hear humming at one point.

A sob sounded from near the wall and Kairi spun round again. Once again she was greeted by nothing. She took another deep breath, clenched her fists, and marched to the panel to open the door. Really, this whole thing was making her far too jumpy; they **were** just echoes.

As the panel slid open she glanced at the code she'd written onto the back of her hand. Taking the card she inserted it, ignoring the sound of another sob, and tapped in the code. The light turned green, the card popped back out and she quickly pocketed it again. Another noise, this time behind her, and she continued to ignore the sounds. At least she'd be less jumpy in the vents.

She backed up, watching the panel close as the door began to open, and then she started to turn. She froze mid-turn, finding herself face-to-face with a heartless. The creature snarled, and her breath caught. This wasn't your everyday normal heartless, not the type Sora had been turned into, which, in Kairi's opinion, had looked rather adorable. Oh no, this creature was large, almost as tall as herself, but stood on four legs. A large, bulky creature that was more dog-like than human.

The creature tossed its head, yellow eyes seeming to look through her. Kairi's heart beat wildly. She had thought that all the heartless were gone from the castle. No one had said as much, but she'd just assumed that that was the case. Oh, how stupid she had been!

Growling, the creature leapt at her. Barely a foot away and it was too late to draw her keyblade. Throwing up her arms in front of her face, she screamed, preparing herself for oblivion. It didn't come.

"Kairi!" She heard Sora's shout from the duct and the sound of him clambering down to her. She let her shaking arms fall away from her face, her breath coming out in sharp gasps. There was nothing around her but the corridor she'd landed in. She was alive. Her legs turned to jelly and she sank to the ground. Sora was by her side in a heartbeat, his hands on her arms.

"Kairi are you okay? You screamed, and you looked like you've seen a ghost."

Kairi nodded, her breathing still rapid. "I-I thought there was-"

"An echo?"

The two friends looked up to Yuffie, who looked down at them from the vent.

An echo. Kairi giggled in relief causing Sora look back at her. What had Quistis said? That the echoes would grow stronger as they went up. Somehow she didn't think that they would be quite so…real? That they'd all just be little noises? She wasn't sure what she thought Quistis had meant, but it wasn't what she had just seen.

Her breathing evened out and she nodded.

"You sure you're okay?" Sora sounded worried.

Kairi nodded again and smiled for him. "It's just a bit of a shock." She shifted and rose to her feet. "Let's keep moving."

Sora looked uncertain, but he nodded in return, moving back into the vent. Kairi followed, praying that none of the other echoes held nasty little surprises.

(&)

They had faces, of that Cloud was certain. He was absolutely certain they all had faces, he just couldn't see them. Another echo disappeared from sight. It wasn't that they were hidden, some of these 'faces' were in plain view when he saw them. There was just something about them that meant that when Cloud looked at them he honestly could not say what they looked like. The harder he looked, the fuzzier the image got. It was like smoke through his mind, it was like a whisper, it was like…like...

When Cloud was a child, he loved to draw. You may not think it if you looked at him now, but as a child few things gave him more pleasure then getting the images from his head onto the paper – or trying to, anyway. The current situation was much like trying to get that image from his head onto paper. The image was there, but when he'd try to focus on a detail or capture the image, it would slip away.

They hadn't met many 'people echoes', as he had dubbed them, and most were only flashes seen in the corner of his eye, or disappeared a few moments after they appeared. Some remained though, and one had even walked right through Irvine, much to the man's annoyance. What they caught more of were conversations, or to be more precise, snatches of conversations. Most were vague and out of context, passing comments and promises which morphed from one speaker to the next, merging conversations from across time.

_-If you really mean that, then you should just give up now_

The voice was vaguely familiar, but was soon drowned out by the words from a passing room, a conversation about books.

_-still think she's the superior writer, her…_

He turned and offered Aerith a hand as she climbed over a pile of debris. While the teens had to travel through the ducts, they had to make their way around the wreckage in the castle.

_-I'm very sorry for your loss_

Cloud frowned; he knew that voice, but the name escaped him, and before he could place it, the speaker had shifted to someone else on a completely different subject.

_-and that makes you twice as good as them_

Aerith's feet touched the floor again and she looked up, as if expecting to see the speaker standing in front of her, a small smile in place.

_-I want to…they can't find fault with…..pick…they're just making your bond stronger._

Ahead of them Irvine threw Quistis a wide grin, who returned it with a small one of her own, as if sharing some private joke.

_You need…_and then the voice shift to a gleeful cry, _-ight should be able to handle anything. _The smile was soon wiped from Quistis' face; evidently this new voice wasn't a welcome addition. The conversation shifted again, and though the speaker remained the same, the liveliness in the voice had been replaced by a slight smugness.

_-say that it couldn't be helped, no matter…was…her…_

Cloud couldn't deny that he wasn't disappointed when the voice was overlapped by another friendlier and light one, meshing with the words until the warmer one won out. Through the two voices continued to shift and over lap.

_-id well. He expected you to fall flat on your face…_

-_I'll admit that…best you could have done_

_-ing you hard then?_

_-with your limited experience…_

_Genesis joined us. _Cloud started, he knew the new voice: it was...

"That's Leon," Tifa whispered beside him.

_What happened?_

"And that's his father," Aerith breathed on the other side of him, but soon the sneering voice was won over for a minute again, a patronizing hint with it.

_I'm sure you did your very best…_

…_didn't look too happy about it. I expected…_

_I'll let you know…_

_..didn't expect you to hold you own before you lost._

_..that; if I was her knight, I wouldn't have let it happen. _

In front of him Quistis stiffened, her eyes going hard and her face stern. Irvine was more vocal, muttering a 'Son of a Bitch', the underlying anger in the words clear. The continuing echoes around them did little to diminish the tense atmosphere that had descended upon them.

Tifa ventured forward the question on the younger members' mind, "What was that about?"

Cloud shrugged, while Aerith bowed her head, her bangs hiding her face, implying that while she may know what that had been about, she didn't wish to share her knowledge with them.

"It doesn't matter," Quistis replied around another echoing laugh. "The stairs are just ahead of us," and she picked up her pace.

Tifa frowned, knowing that she was being lied to; she'd be an idiot not to. It was obvious from the way the older pair acted. Cloud could hazard a good guess as to who the conversation had been about and even between whom, though it didn't quite explain the elder pair's reactions, but then it really wasn't any of his business.

Irvine threw them a grin over his shoulder. "Really, it's nothing; just a bad echo," but his smile wasn't quite bright enough to out shine the light in his eye, or wide enough to hide the underlying anger.

(&)

The hardest part of the journey was travelling between floors. Sora gritted his teeth as he pushed himself up the duct. They'd discovered that by the stairways, the panels were inside the ducts themselves. While it may have been easier to get out and walk up the stairs, they wouldn't be able to get back into the ducts to open the door that blocked their way. The vents were easy enough to open from the inside, but not the outside. This meant that they had to push themselves up a vertical chute.

They were back by the main east stairs. This chute, and stairway, would take them most of the way up the castle. It did mean that the trio were having to push, slide and climb their way up fours floors inside the ducts. This task wasn't helped by the depressingly dark brown colour that the walls had taken on, too dark to be rust, though he couldn't understand for the life of him why somebody would throw so much paint down a duct. Overlaying their panting was the soft sound of a child singing, the words to distant to make out.

Back against one wall, they pushed themselves up with their hands and feet, and Sora was beginning to tire, but Kairi was worse off. Her pace had slowed right down, and she was starting to take longer pauses despite Yuffie's cries and encouragements to keep moving.

"You okay Kairi?"

He could just imagine her nod. "I'm just tired."

"Just keep moving." Yuffie's support came from below them. "It's easier."

"I'll try," though she didn't sound too convincing.

There was a moment's pause before it happened. One moment she was fine, the next she gave a startled cry, drowning out the echo's indistinguishable words. Kairi jerked her back away from the wall, alleviating the pressure that had held her in place. Her startled cry turned to surprise as she fell down, crashing into Sora. One of his feet swung free and he felt it connect with Yuffie as he slipped down. Luckily his other limbs remained in place, preventing him moving more than an inch or so. He bowed his head in relief, taking several deep breaths to slow his rapidly beating heart.

"Watch it, will you! That was my face!" At Yuffie's annoyed remark Sora lifted his head to look at Kairi. His friend's eyes were screwed shut and she kept her hands well away from the walls.

"What's the matter Kairi?"

She shook her head, her eyes still firmly shut. The movement shook his body, threatening to loosen his hold, his legs already begging to give way under Kairi's extra weight. He really didn't fancy seeing how long he could hold out. If Yuffie disliked being kicked in the face, it would be nothing to how she'd feel at having two people land on her after falling four floors.

"Kairi," he started. "I need-" Something caught his attention behind his friend. The walls were turning red. He blinked, watching as the red slowly ran down the walls, at a loss as to what this echo was about. The sound echo was clearer; he could make out the words now. As he stared at the wall the words rang along the chute. It reminded him of one of the songs that Selphie use to chant while she skipped.

_Jimmy was a gardener but his flower was too old_

The red moved through his hand – well, more like trickled...

His thoughts trailed off as realisation hit him, turning him cold. He had assumed that Kairi had spotted a spider, but now he knew that that was far from true, just like he knew that it wasn't paint that darkened the wall. It was blood. Dried blood.

He only just stopped himself from imitating Kairi's earlier action. He'd survived a lot in his short life, but he doubted he'd survive the fall to the bottom of the chute. So his hands remained in place as he saw the 'blood' run through his hands, causing his skin to crawl, screaming for him to jerk them away. All the time the words of the nursery rhyme rang round them from the voice of a small child. _The red petals fell and it withered and died_

"It's-" His voice shook as the words tumbled from his mouth. "It's-"

"Paint." Yuffie's voice was firm and cut through his stammering. She wasn't in denial, her tone was to certain; it was an assurance, a command to ignore it. Sora nearly let out a laugh at that thought, and for once it wouldn't have been genuine. Ignore it? How was he supposed to do that?

"It's paint," she repeated, her calm voice a far cry from her usual self. "Got it? I don't wanna end up a pancake, guys, we need to keep moving. So – it's just paint."

Sora nodded, despite the fact that the older girl couldn't see him. He tore his eyes away from his hand, pushing away the knowledge that if the blood was real, his hand would be soaked by now. _...the rain came down and washed the red away._ Kairi was still in his lap, but her eyes were open as she strengthened her resolve. For a moment again all that Sora could hear were the words of the echo.

"Guys, move it!" Yuffie's voice became irritated. "The faster you move, the faster we can get outta here."

Finally Kairi's hands found their way back onto the walls, followed by her feet, and then she started to push her way back up the chute again. The trio made their way up, thoughts to themselves as they tried to ignore the sights and sounds around them. _Jimmy was a gardener but his flower was too wild_

Sora tried desperately to think of something to say, anything to break the atmosphere to take his mind off of how it took all his will power just to keep pushed up against the wall and to continue moving, but all he managed was a half-hearted 'almost there,' which was met by silence from the two girls. _Choked the other plants till he cut the head away_

Then the other visual echoes appeared, along with the odd cry that cut across the child's chanting; drops of blood falling through the centre of the chute, and through him. One fell just as he happened to look up, coming down between his eyes before it passed through him, causing him to flinch. _But the rain came down and washed the red away_

He wondered what could cause this much blood – surely a single person couldn't bleed this much – and where was it all coming from....'No; don't think about it,' he mentally rebuked himself. 'I really didn't want to know.'_ Jimmy was a gardener but his flower was too meek_

Kairi had slowed down and he got the feeling that she had closed her eyes again, feeling her way up the tunnel.

There was a clunk, too muffled to be from the present, and a doll passed through Kairi. It was a dirty, battered thing, an eye missing and one of its arms torn off. It was followed shortly by what he presumed to be the owner. Whatever noise he would have made caught in his throat, the bile rising instead. As she passed in front of him, her blood soaked dress marking her as dead, she seemed to slow down. All he could be thankful for was that her long dark hair hid her face from view._ Crushed it to a pulp until nothing was left._ He watched as she fell through him, causing a wave of horror sweep throughout his body.

"Don't think about it." Sora's breaths came out in sharp gasps as he tried to do what Yuffie advised. He had no idea how she seemed so calm.

Kairi gave a cry of relief. "We're here!"

She shifted herself into the off-passage and disappeared inside. Sora quickly followed suit, vaguely noting how the red didn't seemed so bright now, or the words so deafening. Still, he didn't look up as he tried to slip into the duct, to where he knew the source of blood was._ Locked it in a box until it withered and died_. He was adamant that he didn't want to know from where – or from what – the blood came. The image of the falling girl returned unbidden to his mind and he was grateful that they hadn't started from the bottom of the chute.

Inside the shelter of the new duct, they all breathed a sigh of relief. They took a moment's rest from both physical and mental exhaustion. He wasn't sure how long they sat there for, evening out his breaths, collecting his shattered thoughts that seemed to want to stay in the blood covered tunnel. He fought the shivers that wanted to shake his body and the urge to wash his hands with something stronger then soap.

Eventually Kairi voiced everyone's thoughts. "_That _was horrible."

No one bothered to answer, listening to the last comprehensive words of the rhyme as they faded back into the folds of time.

_So he lit a fire and burned the garden down_

**Back in a moment……end of part A**

Yeah, I realised that this was two long as one, so it got split into two posted together.


	13. Dream Bound for Life, part b

**In case you were wondering; yes, there were two chapter uploaded at once. The going up was too long for one chapter, so I split it into two. So, if you've skipped straight to this chapter it'd be best if you went back and read the previous one.**

**Chapter 12 (Part B)**

Leon was tired. He shouldn't be, he'd slept for long enough, but he felt more tired now than ever. The cloud in his mind was thicker, hiding away so many things that seemed so unimportant. Breathing was harder, as if a great weight prevented his lungs expanding properly. A chill ran through his body as a breeze kissed his skin, and he felt a bead of sweat run down the side of his face. He was not well, and yet he couldn't find it in himself to particularly care.

His eyes slid open and he was greeted by grass, lots of grass, not to mention a few flowers. Turning his head, he looked up to the sky above. Stars winked through a broken glass roof, and he realised that something was odd about this, but he didn't motivate himself to work out what.

"You're awake again. You're a pretty poor knight if you keep falling asleep."

Leon blinked and looked down at his chest, to where his wife rested her head against his shoulder, her hand resting against his own. The first thing that his mind registered was that this was probably the source of his breathing difficulty. The second was that his right glove had been removed.

Rinoa's attention remained fixed on his hand, her thumb making small movements and even his foggy mind only took a second, well, maybe two, to realise what her thumb ran along; his wedding ring.

"You hid it away." Rinoa's voice was soft, more like her old self then he'd heard for a long time. "Was I a bad sorceress, a bad wife?"

Leon shook his head. "No…I…me…bad." Other words should have gone into the sentence, but the words slipped away from his mind, leaving him with only a few key words.

"Are you ashamed of me?" Her tone took on a sharp edge.

Again he shook his head. "No…I…." He trailed off, giving up, not sure if it was really worth the energy; he was just too tired. He closed his eyes again.

He felt the pressure on his chest lessen slightly, but breathing was still so difficult. He vaguely heard the faint clink as the two wedding rings clashed. Rinoa's fingers intertwined with his own.

"I'm wearing mine. It's not on the chain any more. A pair again. Husband and wife. Sorceress and Knight."

The words washed over him, half lost. He just wanted to go slip back into sleep, even if it meant not waking up again.

(&)

The echoes were growing increasingly vivid, remaining in place for longer the few seconds, individual situations triumphing over others for minutes at a time, a different moment in every room they passed. The sounds drifted into the hallway where they were drowned out by other fragments they encountered. The faces were clear, Cloud even recognised a few of them, and he could tell the echoes apart now.

They varied from moments of the fall of Radiant Garden, when the passageway was filled with corpses, their sightless eyes staring up at the ceiling, to moments that he was sure took place long before his birth. Every now and then a stray 'person' would cross their path. Cloud vividly remembered the image of a young girl, clutching a doll. What disturbed him was that, unlike the other echoes, the girl didn't seem to look through him, but at him. Then she looked round, as if she'd been called, and faded back to her own time.

The echoes weren't always replayed where they originally took place – or that was Cloud's guess. He wasn't an expert, but he was pretty sure that important meetings were rarely held in the hallways with people half in and half out of the walls. He also doubted that parties were held in the broom closets, at least not the kind with bands.

Most were just everyday activities, through every now and then they'd come across something that was disturbing, interesting, amusing, or, judging from the colour Tifa had just turned, embarrassing.

Tifa extracted her head from a doorway, quickly closing the door behind her, her face an interesting shade of red. "I wouldn't go in there."

Irvine grinned, raising an eyebrow.

Cloud glanced back at Aerith; the flower girl still looked pale. A couple of floors back they had passed an abandoned bedroom. Something inside must have caught her eye and she looked inside briefly before slamming the door, blood drained from her face. She didn't say what she had seen.

"How many floors do we have left?" Tifa's face still sported a red tinge, much to Irvine's apparent amusement.

"I'd say about three floors. What did yer think Quisty?"

"Two floors," she corrected, and turned back to those behind her. "Is everyone alright?"

Cloud gave a curt nod, mirrored by a hesitant one from Aerith and a 'sure' from Tifa. A couple of 'people echoes' passed them by, allowing Cloud to catch a hint of their conversation.

…_Well I think it's romantic. If she wants him, then let her._

_It's not a Radiant Garden sweetest couple competition..._

Quistis didn't seem convinced by Aerith's nod, but turned back anyway. "We should be at the top soon," she threw back as an encouragement. So they moved on in silence, passing open doorways while catching snippets of conversations.

_Guess what! I'm gonna be adopted!_

Aerith paused at a crossroad, eyes routed down the side passage. Shifting to see her face, Cloud could see her eyes go round, a soft smile spreading across her face. He followed her line of sight. Before them were two women, one he had no memory of but he was surprised to see that he knew the other very well.

"Matron?" Tifa's voiced caused Irvine and Quistis to stop and retrace their steps. Cloud watched as Aerith walked towards the women, her eyes far away. He'd never seen her like this before, but then for her this wasn't Matron, this was her mother.

She was a lot younger then he remembered – obviously this was before Aerith's birth – and she was beautiful. He remembered that she was, but he'd always suspected that his mind had forgotten her flaws, and enhanced her assets. She stood talking to her friend, who held a small bundle in her arms, both of their expressions serious. Quistis brushed past him, following the flower girl, and Cloud trailed behind her. As they drew closer, the women's faces split into a smile and they relaxed into an easy conversation.

Matron looked down at the bundle and it didn't take long for Cloud to realise that it was a baby.

…_proud father then?_ Aerith's mother said while her real life daughter stood beside her, leaning in to get a closer look at her long dead mother.

_I can barely keep him away. He's always hovering or playing, always with that ridiculous grin on his face _Despite the other woman's words, there was no force behind them _I think he'd take him to work if I let him_

Aerith's smile widened and she giggled, looking up at Quistis.

_That doesn't surprise me_

"Took the words out of my mouth," Quistis muttered, both her and Aerith looked down at the baby, while the echo's conversation continued on about the overly proud father.

After a moment Aerith spoke again. "He was a cute baby."

Quistis nodded and Aerith straightened, looking back to her mother. Quistis reached out to her. "We need to go."

Aerith nodded, but before she left, she leaned forward, her lips brushing through the echo-mother's cheek. "Goodbye mother."

Cloud turned to see Irvine behind him, the cowboy's own eyes rooted to 'Matron', nostalgia shining through, and Cloud passed him by.

When he reached the crossroad again, he caught a glimpse of something through an open doorway. He hesitated before taking a closer look; it was hard to resist curiosity. The room held a boy and a girl, younger then Sora was, and it took a second to realise that the boy was Squall, which must mean that the girl was Rinoa.

Squall stood before Rinoa, who sat on the ground looking up at him. Squall extended his hand and Rinoa's eyes went wide at something Squall had said, before a smile split her face. Her hand settled in Squall's, and the two disappeared. Cloud took a step away from the door and heard the others reach the crossway. It was a little snippet, a small gesture, but Cloud could not help but feel as if he'd seen a very significant moment in their lives.

(&)

Kairi's feet touched the ground on the other side of the final block. She glanced around, echoes running down the large hallway and out of sight. At least these seemed innocent enough. She wiped her hands on her dress, remembering the 'blood incident'.

She pushed that thought away and her eyes finally settled on the far end of the corridor. Up those stairs and through that door was the Sorceress, or so they thought anyway. With no more than a wooden, half broken door between them and a keyblade to protect her, she wasn't really sure she wanted the woman to be on the other side. Of course she did, Kairi scolded herself. Otherwise, what was the point in crawling all the way up here? Everything would have been for nothing. Besides, the sooner they found her, the sooner this would all be over. Still, didn't stop her from feeling more than a little jumpy.

Opening the panel she slipped in the card for the final time and punched in the code. Something moved to her right and her head snapped to the side. There, a little red-haired girl sat, swinging her legs in mid-air. She assumed that in the girl's own time, she was sitting on a table or a high chair, but it hadn't appeared with the girl, unlike the small blue ball she was throwing at a non-existent wall. It was quite a strange image; a young child, sitting on nothing while throwing a ball at thin air, to have it hit nothing before bouncing back at her, all the while humming a happy tune to herself. But it wasn't quite as strange as the knowledge that she wasn't looking at any young girl, she was looking at herself.

The rhythm of the ball was interrupted when it hit the 'wall' oddly and bounced off in a completely different direction. Echo-Kairi leapt off her seat and ran after it as fast as her little legs could carry her. She was so absorbed in the ball that she didn't notice a man appear in her path until she dashed straight into his legs. She fell backwards onto her backside. The older man, seeing the girl, kneeled down to offer her a hand. He had long dark hair, tied back from his kind face.

_Sorry, young lady; didn't see you there. You alright?_

'Kairi' nodded and sprung back up, peering round the man, her face falling slightly.

_Were you looking for this? _He held up the bright blue ball to her, causing her to beam back up at him. She took the ball from him with an enthusiastic _thank you_.

_You're welcome princess, but I think your grandmother is looking for you in the library. _

Little Kairi nodded before running down the hallway and through a wall. The man watched her from a moment before straightening and turning back the other way. _Rinoa – there you are!_

Kairi's heart skipped a beat and she spun around, keyblade appearing in her hand, before she remembered that it would be an echo, not the real sorceress. She relaxed slightly, and the keyblade vanished again.

'Rinoa' walked towards the 'man', looking much she had on Destiny Island, though maybe a little younger. She paid Kairi no attention, and she allowed herself to relax completely.

The long haired man continued. _You had us all worried._

_I'm sorry._

Kairi's eyes drifted past her to a boy following in Rinoa's wake. He looked familiar. Whoever it was, he was attractive. As she took in his clothing realisation hit her and her jaw nearly dropped; it was Leon, or Squall, whatever name she should refer to him by.

She giggled; he was different, not unrecognisably so, but still very different. The scar was missing from his face and, combined with his features being softer in his young teenage years, it gave him a fresh look. The most noticeable difference was his stature. She didn't know Leon well at all, but somehow she'd assumed that he'd always been a muscular person. The echo in front of her now, however, was a mere slip of his adult self. He was leaner, more toned, and clearly lacked the additional years of wielding a gunblade that the Leon she had met had acquired. But then, if he was wielding the weapon at this point, she had no doubt he was a lot stronger then he looked. However, the Squall in front of her was more to her personal tastes; when compared to himself in the future, he looked almost… cute, but the age gap may have helped more than a little in this regard.

_No worries, but you should get back to Merlin before he blows up the castle trying to find you._

Rinoa grinned _Yes sir _but before running off she turned back round to her friend, _Thank you Squall._

The boy's lips twitched. _You're welcome_ and he watched the girl go, something mixed in with the seriousness in his eyes.

_So, _the older echo began, _You found Rinoa._

The boy turned to him, _Obviously_

The man's smiled widened at the answer and Kairi noted the familiarity between the two of them, an ease that hinted that they knew each other very well.

_Genesis is still looking for her in the library, of course, he may just have got distracted along the way. He's probably standing there reciting scenes from-_

_Is this going anywhere?_

_Of course; my point is that you found out she was missing an hour ago and you've already brought her back. _

The boy shrugged a shoulder. _It wasn't difficult_

The older man was now grinning so widely that Kairi was surprised that it didn't split his face in half. _But you were the only one who could find her. Everyone else is still looking._

There was a moment of silence in which Squall simply gave another half-shrug. He looked up at the other man, his attitude suddenly becoming very suspicious. _What are you scheming? _His words lacked any malice or real annoyance.

The man's eyes widened with 'innocence'. _Me? Scheming?_

"That's Leon isn't it?" Kairi jumped a foot into the air, and whipped round to see Sora smiling apologetically.

"Who's the other man?"

Kairi looked back at the man as they echo continued to play out.

_I don't scheme._

"Don't know."

Sora turned to Yuffie who shrugged and stepped past them. "Come on, the entrance hall for the ballroom is just down this corridor. We'll wait for the others there." She quickly made her way forward, more eager to help her friend then watching random snippets of the past. Sora quickly followed. Kairi gave one final look back at the two men, who were now walking away.

_That's not scheming, that's planning._

She turned and followed her childhood friend, missing how the echo changed. How the man fell lifeless to the ground, blood pooling round him, and how Squall, older now, sat wide eyed and staring at the corpse, one small word tumbling from his lips.

**End of Chapter 11**

Traaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaumatised Sora! :grin: Well, we only have a couple of chapters left now, not long to go at all.

By the way, I would love feedback on this chapter(s) from all you guys because there was a lot of stuff in this chapter that was kinda new ground for me and was quite tricky to get right. I'd love to know what worked and what didn't, to know if this was just boring to you guys or not.


	14. Mother's care, and colours of the kites

**Chapter 13**

Even in ruins, you could catch glimpses of the former glory of the entrance hall. One could imagine what the room would have looked like before its fall. The portraits along the wall were now so tattered, stained and faded that he couldn't tell if most were portraits or landscapes. Debris littered the floor, while the stone steps leading up to the ballroom were cracked and broken, but still useable.

In the centre of it all sat Sora, Kairi and Yuffie. Yuffie's eyes were trained on the grand doorway of the ballroom, her leg jiggling impatiently. Sora's hand was on Kairi's shoulder, as he sat close to her, whispering quietly. As Cloud's group entered the room, Sora's hand dropped away and he stood smiling, but there was something under the surface that made Cloud wonder what echoes they had seen.

"Is she in there?" Quistis asked.

The keyblade master nodded. "I think she's done some redecorating as well." Cloud brushed the joke aside.

"We better get going then," Irvine said, drawing his gun and resting it against his shoulder. "We've got a date to keep."

Kairi and Yuffie stood, Kairi brushed herself down. Yuffie was already on her way to the door.

"Yuffie, Aerith," Quistis' voice stopped the ninja and she turned back to the teacher, looking down the steps at the teacher. "You two try to get to Leon, we'll deal with Rinoa."

Yuffie nodded, remaining quiet for once. Standing there as she was now, so serious and solemn, Cloud didn't think he'd ever seen her look so mature. She waited at the top for the others to catch up with her. There was a slight pause, a short mental preparation, before the group entered the ballroom. Cloud blinked, and then blinked again. He saw what Sora had meant: the ballroom was somewhat more…flowery than he remembered.

Grass and flowers spread outwards, growing through the cold stone, thinning out as they reached the edges of the hall. Unlike in her prison, these flowers were all white, seeming to glow in the soft light of the moon. Vines crept up the pillars, blooming as they reached for the stars. Moonlight streamed through the broken ceiling, bathing the room in a soft silvery light, sending a small shiver down Cloud's spine. At the epicentre of it all lay the sorceress and her knight.

Rinoa's head rested on her knight's chest, eyes closed as if in slumber. Her hand gripped Leon's tightly. Cloud's eyes slid up to Leon's face and his stomach twisted in fear. The older man looked dead. He was far too still and, while he admitted he was no expert healer, he was positive that that pallor was not healthy.

Then Leon stirred, moving his head to the side and Cloud even swore that he saw his eyes flutter. He felt a little weight lift from him, at least Leon was still alive.

Aerith seemed to notice the same thing. She dashed forward, calling out her friend's name.

Cloud's eyes flew back to Rinoa in time to see the sorceress' eye snap open. The tinge of magic was appeared in the air. Springing forward Cloud pushed Aerith to the side, drawing his buster sword. Aerith hit the ground just as Cloud's sword rose to shield himself. He felt the sword shudder under the impact of the spell, and the metal glowed slightly for a moment, heat radiating from the metal.

"Back to play?"

Cloud lowered his sword far enough to peer over the edge. He saw the sorceress straighten.

"What have you done to Leon?" Aerith shifted, sitting up as she called out.

Rinoa tilted her head. "Leon?"

"Squall," Quistis clarified up for the other woman, her hand on her whip. "Rinoa, why are you killing your knight?"

Rinoa's eyes flashed, deepening in darkness and anger. "How dare you," she hissed, raising her left hand. "He is my knight. Why would I kill my knight? I will make you swallow those ignorant words." Like in her prison, the air hummed with dark energy and anger. "You will-"

A hand on her wrist cut her off, making the air calm again. Her eyes widened for a moment as they fell on the limb.

"Rinoa." The woman looked down at her knight who had spoken, his weak voice worrying Cloud more then he cared to admit.

The knight took a quick breath. "Rinoa, leave…them…. Please."

Oh no, Cloud really didn't like how Leon sounded – too soft, too weak for the leader. The man may not talk a lot, but when he did he always sounded strong and certain, a far cry from his present state. The knight took a deep breath that shuddered to a stop too early. Nearby, Cloud heard Yuffie make a small noise accompanied by a small, 'Leon,' as he tried to take another breath.

"Rinoa," Aerith said in her most soothing voice. "Look at him, you're hurting him. If you carry on he won't survive."

"He won't die." The sorceress sounded defensive, and she looked down at her knight, her presence and voice softening. "My knight is stronger then that. My loyal knight won't die so easily."

"If he's so loyal then release him." Irvine's voice lacked its usual light-heartedness as he spoke.

Rinoa's eyes snapped back up, the hard edge back in an instant and she stood.

"Do not presume to tell me how to deal with my knight." Her deep voice trembled. No sooner had the words left her mouth then a Firaga spell erupted before her and shot towards the cowboy. The man dove forwards, rolling out of the way, leaving his hat behind. As he rose to a kneeling position he swung his gun up, levelling it at his attacker. There was a click as the safety was released. He may as well have pointed a rose at her for all the effect it had.

"Are you going to shoot me?" Irvine's gaze didn't waver. Rinoa blinked and there was a slight shift in her. "You'll shoot me." Her voice was softer. "Right Irvy?"

The shift was enough to loosen the resolve in the man, and he never fired. Yuffie took advantage of this shift. Moving forward she fired four throwing stars at the sorceress in quick succession. Rinoa shifted back in a moment, holding up her hand to the weapon. A metre away from her they halted, suspended in mid-air. They hung there a second before she gave a harsh jerk of her arm, sending them flying back towards them.

Cloud quickly stepped in front of Aerith, once again using his sword a make-shift shield. There was a dull clunk as the star hit the sword before landing uselessly in the flowers. Quistis also acted quickly, dashing forward, her whip cracking in front of her; once, knocking a star to the ground; twice, flicking another into the air. Tifa was there in an instant, using the kneeling Irvine as a step up. She ignored his half-hearted objection, and leapt up, plucking the weapon as it sailed lazily upwards. She landed gracefully amongst the flowers. Yuffie ducked the one that came towards her, her shuriken already in her hand. Leaping up and forward, she let it fly.

"Cloud." Aerith's voice behind him drew his attention. "Help me get to Leon."

Cloud watched as Yuffie's weapon flew back at her, and he wondered if Aerith was insane; she wanted to get to the centre of the sharp flying objects. Yuffie took hold of the shuriken as it whizzed past her, the momentum sending her stumbling back several paces.

"That's not a good idea right now."

Sora and Kairi joined in the fray, dodging the throwing star that had left Tifa's untrained hand.

"Leon will die if I don't help him."

Cloud's hand tightened on his sword handle. "And you can't help him with a missile in your head." He wanted to help Leon, he really didn't want his friend to die, but leaping into death would do nobody any good.

A star narrowly missing Sora, grazing his cheek and leaving a red streak in its wake.

"I'll be careful," she assured him, already edging her way to the side.

Cloud let his sword drop low. "That may not be necessary."

Beside his sorceress, Leon was on his knees, gunblade in hand. He swayed slightly before his hand tightened on his weapon. Cloud felt the short raising of dread, praying to whatever higher being that might be listening that this didn't mean they'd have to fight Leon as well.

(&)

It had taken Leon a while to work out that Rinoa wasn't talking to him. It had confused him, only catching Rinoa's half of the conversation as his mind slowly worked to figure out what was going on. He found little comfort in the fact that his friends were here; after all, they were fighting against his wife. Whichever way this went, he would lose.

He'd tried to save them, asking his sorceress to leave them alone, to let them go, but it was hard to form a convincing argument when one couldn't breathe properly, could hardly think, and one's limbs felt like lead. He felt worse then ever when his plea fell on deaf ears. Just another failure to add to the list.

His only comfort was that he was with her again, that he was still her knight. He'd hidden away from his duty for eight years. He'd ignored her calling him to rescue her or to kill her. To kill her. That was the one command that he had never been able to follow. Even when she lay screaming on their bed, or when the darkness finally consumed her. He had always had hope then.

What did he have now? Her; his sorceress. She was still here and so was his duty, his place, the two most important elements in his life. It was his life, or it should have been.

The sounds of fighting registered in his mind, his surroundings becoming clearer, and he sorted through his mind. This was wrong, this shouldn't be happening like this. He shouldn't be lying here listening as his friends fought with his wife. They shouldn't be fighting, and they wouldn't have been if he'd fulfilled his role properly in the first place. All he had wanted was Rinoa, for her he'd happily taken on the role of her knight, and all the duties that came with it. He'd done it for Rinoa and nothing had changed since that evening on the balcony when he'd agreed to this life.

Yes, there was Rinoa, and that's all that mattered any more. Where there was a Sorceress there was her knight and the bond between them. His hand groped about in the grass. And what was a Knight's first duty?

His hand fell on the gunblade. It was to his Sorceress.

He rose to his knees, the heavy weight of his weapon in his hand as his world spun around him. A knight's first duty was to his sorceress.

His grip tightened on the handle as his world righted itself, the fog in his mind slowly being replaced by resolve. His first duty was to his Sorceress.

Turning, he swung the blade upwards, plunging it through the stomach of his wife, his Rinoa. A knight's first duty is to his sorceress; not the darkness inside of her.

Leon pulled the trigger.

**End of Chapter 13**


	15. Meadows of Heaven

**Chapter 14****- Meadows of Heaven**

The gunblade shot echoed round the room, freezing all the watchers in place. Sora halted mid-stride, watching as Leon withdrew the bloody weapon from his lover. It tumbled from his fingers as soon as it was free, its victim following in its wake. Leon half rose to meet the fallen sorceress, catching her under the arms before she landed heavily on the ground. His own legs crumbled under him as he sank back down, drawing the woman close to him. Her own hands rose to bury themselves in his T-shirt as she melted into the embrace.

A non-existent wind tugged the feathers of her wings free. They danced across the hall, wisps of darkness curling round them as it left Rinoa, darkening the feathers till they turned ebony. As the feathers fell away the wings seemed to dissolve till the final feather found its freedom and her wings had completely disappeared. The last whisper of darkness wrapped around the last feather it as it joined its companions. Together they morphed, the darkness taking on a new form.

"Sora." Quistis' voice broke through to him as she dashed past. "Deal with the heartless." Irvine was on her heels, neither of them hearing Sora's 'Got it.'

The new heartless shape solidified, and a giant bird hovered above them. Kairi came to stand beside him, keyblade in her hand and ready.

"Be careful, Kairi," he said, his eyes never leaving the bird as it rose, preparing to strike. Sora smiled a little, focusing his magic. This he could do; fighting heartless was something he could do very well. Nice and simple: he was good and the heartless was evil, and best of all it was good and clean to kill it.

The heartless dove and Sora released the Aero spell. The spell knocked the creature of balance and it dropped a foot before it could clumsily catch itself. It was enough for Sora though. He leapt up, swinging his keyblade and striking upwards, hitting the large bird. The momentum of the strike continued as he struck sideways and then third time, downwards, as he fell back to the ground.

No sooner had his feet had touched the ground than Kairi had taken his place landing her own strike. Her second missed, giving the creature time to move. It shot up, just out of her range, and kicked out at her. Kairi was flung backwards past Sora, rolling across the hall. Sora flung another Aero at the creature as it dove to attack. This time the heartless dodged his spell, twisting out of the way. It charged them and Sora dove and rolled, felling the rush of air as it brushed over him.

On his feet again, he spun around, relieved to see Kari had also dodged the attack. The Heartless pulled up turning in the air to attack again, but this time it dove straight down at its closest opponent – Kairi. Sora dashed forward.

Not a moment too soon Kairi jumped back, barely missing the attack, but the creature struck again. Launching forward, it rammed Kairi before she had time to react. Winded, the girl stumbled back, doubled over for a second until the creature struck again with its claws. Sora sped up, watching as the claw sank into his friend's shoulder and taking off into the air. Kairi cried out as her feet slowly left the ground. She gripped the claw biting into her, trying to relieve some of the pressure. Sora pushed himself off the ground, reaching out, only to have his fingers brush across the bottom of Kairi's foot.

He landed, spun round and called out to her. His fingers clutched his keyblade tighter, his frustration boiling over making the Firaga spell seem easier and quicker to form. When the spell was fired and hit the creature it was knocked further away, jerking Kairi with it causing her to cry out again. The creature was out of range, he was helpless and Kairi was in pain.

The blood had drained from his friend's face, but she squeezed her eyes shut, and her expression hardened with determination. Opening her eyes she drew back her right arm and swung it up. As it rose she let go of the keyblade, sending it flying up into her captor's head. The creature shrieked in alarm, dropping its prey. And Kairi fell.

Pushing away the raising panic he threw out an Aero to slow her descent, forming a Curaga as it did so. Kairi's landing, while not as graceful as normal, was more or less steady, and soon the healing spell was working its magic on her wound. Sora was by her side before it finished with another spell ready, just in case.

"Kairi are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she said, her keyblade already being summoned into her hand.

Sora's eyes quickly examined his friend's wound, seeing how the spell had already stopped the flow of blood. It wasn't as good as one of Aerith's spells, but it would do for the time being. The pink material of her dress was stained. Still damp the red patch stuck to her skin, reminding him of-

He shook his head riding himself of the recent memory. The heartless shrieked, creating a welcome distraction. The creature beat its wings, rising up again, its actions tipping them off to the charge it was about to make. The creature dove and Kairi quickly moved to the side, out of the path of the attack, but Sora ran along it. He glanced over his shoulder at the bird as it levelled off and sped towards him. At what Sora judged to be a safe distance, he spun around to watch his enemy shoot across at an alarming speed. For a moment he feared that he'd turned too soon and he'd find himself on the receiving end of a painful attack. A metre in front of him though, the monster was forced to wheel up. Smiling Sora jumped up, grabbing hold of the bird's right wing, intending to move onto the creature's back. It didn't go quite to plan.

The added weight and restriction to one of its wings sent the bird off kilter and it went crashing to the ground, Sora with it. The keyblade master found himself underneath the wing as the bird crash landed. He was dragged along, wincing as the occasional stone in the grass struck his back or legs. When they finally stopped the heartless lay dazed, allowing the bruised and battered Sora to push himself free. Kairi was already there, raining down a rapid succession of blows on the disorientated bird.

Scooping up his own Keyblade from where it lay by his feet, he struck out and his weapon slid through the air as the heartless burst from Kairi's own finishing blow. Slightly surprised he caught his balance before turning to his friend, giving her a 'thumbs up'. Although truth be told, it was a lot easier than he assumed it would be. It must have been weakened from Leon's attack while it was still in Rin-

Kairi's thanks fell on deaf ears as he spun round, discovering how quickly the sweet taste of victory could turn sour.

(&)

_I'm sorry._

The words tumbled from Leon's lips, uncertain if she could hear them. He drew her closer to him, repeating the words again, unable to stop his lips from moving. It didn't matter that they came out barely more than a whisper. His face buried itself in the crook of her neck. His eyelashes were damp, tears spilling over.

Lips brushed his ear, hot breath passing over and she whispered to him, "Took your time," weak but light hearted.

He tightened his arms round her, his eyes screwing shut, hot tears leaking faster then ever. Of course it had taken him this long. His actions started to sink in. He'd shot Rinoa, he'd plunged his gunblade into her and shot her. He could feel her blood seeping into his clothes.

Someone called to him, too distant and strong to be the woman in his arms.

"Leon! Leon, please answer me. Leon, can you hear me?" It was… Aerith…. Yes, Aerith, but so different from her usual calm self; he hadn't heard her this panicked and scared since the fall of Radiant Garden. Yet he couldn't bring himself to answer her.

"Please Leon, I need to help you. I need you to let me help Rinoa."

He would have laughed, instead his lips merely twitched. Dear Aerith – so pure-hearted, so naïve at times. Did she really think that there was anything she could do? It was a miracle Rinoa wasn't screaming in pain. Weakened as she was from the darkness and then his shot, there was about as much hope for her as there was for him. While the wound was claiming her life, the darkness in him was suffocating his. Free from the sorceress's control, it hungrily devoured him inside. No, they were both as good as dead.

The word caused reality to come crashing down on him. Oh God, he'd killed Rinoa. He'd consciously and actively killed his wife. This wasn't fair, this wasn't the ending he wanted, it shouldn't end like this. She was supposed to get better, she was supposed to be cured; otherwise, what was the point. What was the point of the imprisonment, of the last eight years of his life, of Quistis' and Irvine's solitary watch over her.

He bit back the sob that tried to claw its way out of his throat. She was supposed to get better so they could be together again. Instead he'd killed her, the ultimate failure of a knight.

So why did he do it? He let Aerith's voice wash over him again, ignoring Yuffie's as she joined in.

Then there was her voice again, quiet and small against his ear and yet it seemed to drown out everything else. "Thank you."

He did it because that's what Rinoa wanted. Because there had been some chance that by doing this he could save her after the darkness had left, but he could feel her life draining away, too quickly to help her, but most importantly, because Rinoa wouldn't forgive him otherwise.

_You rescued me._

He was sure there was something you should say in these situations, and somehow, he didn't think it was 'You're Welcome'. What did you say at a time like this? So he changed the subject; what did he want his last words to be?

"I love you." Damn, that sounded cliché, but, it seemed important. He was sure he felt her smile, the soft touch of magic surrounding him.

"Come meet me," she whispered, and then she relaxed, the tension leaving her body. He could feel the darkness's grip tighten around him, but he didn't fight it. It pulled him away from his world, the sounds around him fading away, and he surrendered, letting himself fall away from the world.

(&)

He recognised this place, this meadow, this tree. Fourteen years ago he'd found a young Rinoa here; he had offered her his hand and he had taken her back home with a promise that he would watch over her. She would later tell him that that was the moment she had fallen in love with him.

This wasn't really the meadow, though, he knew that. The real one lay outside the castle and was a barren wasteland now. Still, he sat underneath the shade of the tree and waited.

"I'm glad you came."

Leon looked up to his wife. Her dark hair stirred in the breeze, falling just past her shoulder, and she held up a hand to stop it blowing into her face. A white summer dress clung to her frame, tugged gently by the light wind, pale blue trousers covering her legs. Best of all, though, deep brown eyes looked at him, full of love and laughter. It was Rinoa. Not soul-fragment Rinoa, or evil Sorceress Rinoa – his Rinoa. Leon returned her smile, causing hers to widen.

"I knew there was one in there."

He chuckled. "What now?"

"Well, we could stay here, but I'm a little bored with flowers at the moment."

Normally he would have winced at the reference, but here it didn't matter; he knew she was joking.

"Where will we go?"

"Does it matter?" and she leaned forward and offered him her hand, just like he had all those years ago. An invitation, an offer of comfort and a sign they were together. "Let's go."

To life? To death? He realised that it didn't matter. He was truly with her again, and that was enough. The light reflected off the rings that hung round her neck. For longer then he could remember he felt at peace.

"Let's go," he agreed.

And he clasped her hand.

**End of Meadows of Heaven**

Wait! WHAT!? WHAT HAPPENED TO MY HAPPY ENDING!!!!!!!!!!!!! Honestly it was here a moment ago (okay, a month and a half ago). I even had a super sweet happily-ever-after epilogue planned as well. I'm not entirely sure what happened here. No, I know what happened; my muse looked at that fluffy bunny of an ending, drew fangs on it, looked at it again, and then ate it. Seriously though, this seemed like the far better ending without ending up with that sour feeling of a slight cop out.

Okay, a new quick point. I've had a few people point this out to me so; the ending is rather open ended and somewhat lacks closure. It is supposed to be rather open ended. Mainly because I'm not sure if I want to do something else with this in another fic (yeah, my projects tend to get out of hand and evole to a new species), though if I do do something it'll be set a year later and it won't be a 'and yay; this is how Leon came home' fic. I was very tempted for a while to have them go into the FF8 world after this (I see no reason for it having to be them going from VIII to KH just because that's the order of that most of us played it in), but I throw that idea away quite quicking.

Anyway, just a quick tip of the hat to a few people. Firstly, thanks to Tammiya for looking over and making sure I haven't done anything REALLY stupid and OoC, and secondly a MASSIVE thank you, with cookies and hugs, to sashwizzled, a friend who is a far better writer then I'll ever be, who put up with this story and beta read the whole thing.

Thirdly, thank you to everyone who reviewed/fav/watched the, and will review and fav, this fic, especially InstigateInsanity, cheerlygal, SavvyLovesYaoi, Jas, Takayu, NinjaSheik and angelgriever, who all reviewed repeatedly. I always try to respond to reviews, so please click the button and tell me what you think, including constructive criticism (it'd be nice to know what I can improve on), especially all those who fav'ed and watched the fic. I'd love to know what you all thought.


	16. Epilogue

**A/N: **I wasn't originally going to do this, but the feedback I got from the last chapter seemed to point towards the fact that most people thought I needed something else. I will admit that I kinda cut the story short for Sora and co. and it seems silly to ask for feedback and then ignore. So; just a short little bit with Sora in here, to tie give him a proper ending.

**Epilogue**

It was a small, feeble hope that all his problems would drain away with the shower water, but Sora couldn't help wishing for it. As soon as they had arrived back at the restoration committee's house, Kairi and himself had each taken a bathroom, having needed to wash ever since they had seen the blood pouring down the chute. However, no matter how much he scrubbed, his skin still crawled with the memory. Eventually, he gave up. Sinking down, he pulled his knees to him and let the shower water rain down over him.

Alone and unoccupied, his thoughts and memories caught up with him, chasing one another around his head, clawing away at his mind till he could think of nothing else. It took all his concentration to push them away, but with nothing else to take their place, they soon returned with a vengeance. It felt pointless to try anymore.

Of course, he could just get up and go downstairs. Nerves bubbled up in his gut, making him feel ill. He'd have to go down at some point, but he didn't know if he could face anyone, not yet anyway. He rested his forehead on his knees. All those people down there that he had taken Leon away from. He'd taken their leader and friend. How do you make up for something like that?

The memory of Leon and Rinoa disappearing with the flowers and plants reared its ugly head. For a while Sora had hoped that their disappearance had meant that Rinoa had taken them away. However, every time he tried to convince himself of this, he'd remember the way Aerith had cried and begged with Leon to let her help and not give up.

There was a sharp knock at the door and Sora's head snapped up, away from his morbid thoughts.

"Sora?" Riku's voice sounded from the other side of the door, just audible over the sound of the shower. Sora reached around to switch the shower off. "Riku?"

"Sora, are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Course."

"It's just, you've been in here for over an hour."

Sora leapt up in surprise, nearly slipping over as he scrambled out of the bath. He grabbed the towel from the floor. Hurriedly drying himself down, he called out to his friend, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take so long, I lost track of time."

"It's okay," he heard Riku reply as Sora shoved on his pants and shorts over his damp skin. "We're just worried about you."

Sora opened the door, towel resting on his head and t-shirt in hand. In the corridor stood Riku, leaning on a crutch, his ankle now bandaged up. He examined Sora, "You sure you're okay?" he asked again.

Sora forced a grin onto his face. "Hate to point this out, but I'm not the one with the crutch."

Riku smiled. "Then step aside so I can sit down."

Sora obliged, widening the door so his friend could hobble in. Throwing off the towel, he slipped on his shirt as Riku perched himself on the edge of the bath, ignoring the water covering the surface. Sora stared at his friend's ankle.

"It's fine." Sora looked up at his friend's words. "Aerith's a good healer."

"How is she?"

Riku hesitated a moment. "I'm not sure. I think she went to her room; I haven't seen her since she finished seeing to me." Riku changed the subject. "Everyone's just working out where to put everyone. I think Kairi and Yuffie are sharing a room tonight, and Tifa's watching over Aerith, so we can stay in Tifa's room."

"I don't mind sleeping on the couch."

A heavy silence filled the small room. "Everyone really is worried about you. I think Cid was going to come up for you if Kairi or I didn't."

Sora just nodded, moving to Riku and sliding down to the ground by his legs.

"They gotta be really mad at me right?" Sora didn't bother looking up at his friend.

"I think they understand you were trying to help. Even the keyblade master makes mistakes. They don't hate you."

"It's just....Leon was really important to them. He was their friend, helping them with restoring the world. I dunno how I can make it up to them."

"You don't have to." An awkward silence filled the room. Maybe, but he couldn't just walk away from them. "Why don't we go to bed? I think everyone needs to clear their heads."

He stood and Sora followed suit, gathering up his towel and last items.

"Riku." His silver haired friends turned back to him. "I'm gonna stay here, at least for the time being."

Riku didn't argue or ask why, he just nodded. "They could use three keyblade masters." Sora's eyes widened; he hadn't meant to drag Kairi and Riku into this as well – there was no reason they couldn't go home. His objection was cut off by Riku. "You don't expect us to leave you here, do you? You'd get into too much trouble without me there to look out for you." Riku stepped out the bathroom.

"Look out for me!? I'm not the one with the bandaged foot," he retorted, catching up to his friend.

They continued to banter quietly. Sora felt bad for dragging his friends away from home again, but he couldn't deny how his heart lightened with the idea that at least when he faced everyone, he would have Riku and Kairi by his side. Not just tomorrow either, but the day after and the day after that. After the events of the evening, he couldn't think of anything better in the universe.

**End (honestly, this time it really is) of Meadows of Heaven**

Okay, that's a wrap. I hope to see some of you people in 'Bye Bye Beautiful'.


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